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CIHM/ICMH 

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illustrent  la  mdthode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

m 


HISl 


America  not  Discovered  by  Columbis. 


A  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 


OF    THE 


^hmmi  ttf  ^mtim  &g  tlje  |l0rsem«ii, 


IN  THE  TENTH  CENTURY. 


Bv   R.  B.  ANDERSOJSs   A.M., 


Oc  THK    UmVKKSITV    OF   WISCONSIN. 


WITH   AN  APPENDIX 

ON   THE 

HISTORICAL,  LINGUISTIC,  LITERARY  AND  SCIENTIFIC  VALUE 
OF  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  LANGUAGES. 


CHICAGO: 

S.   C.   GRIGGS   AND   COMPANY 

LONDON:   TRfBNER  &  CO, 

1874. 


^  US' 


68443 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by 

S.  C.  GRIGGS  AND  COMPANY, 
in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


y 


TO 


.STEPHEN  H.  CARPENTEK,  LL.D., 

PROFB880K  OF  LoeiC,   RHETORIC   AND  ENGLISH   LiTBRATURB, 


WHOSE  FRIENDSHIP  AND  SYMPATHY  HAVE  BEEN  A  COMFORT 
TO  ME  IN  THE  LINE  OF  STUDIES  THAT 
I  HAVE  PURSUED, 
AND  WHOSE  VOICE  HAS  WHISPERED  "COURAGE"  WHEN- 
EVER I  SEEMED  TO  PALTER  IN  DESPAIR, 

THE  FOLLOWING  PAGES  ARF 

RESPECTFULLY  DEDICATED, 
AS  A  TRIBUTE  OF  GRATITUDE  AND  AFFECTION,  BY 


THE  AUTHOR. 


I" 

valiij 
C.  C 
B.  F 
R.  ] 
othe] 
II.  ( 
valuf 
I 
The 
that 
auth( 
the 
has  1 
of  tl 
inter 


PEEFAOE. 


"FN  preparing  this  sketch,  the  author  lias  freely 
-*-  made  use  of  such  material  as  he  considered 
valuable  for  his  purpose  from  the  works  of  Torlbeus, 
C.  C.  Rafn  J-  T.  Smith,  N.  L.  Beamish,  G.  (rravier, 
B.  F.  De  Costa,  A.  Davis,  William  and  Mary  Ilowitt, 
B.  M.  Ballantyne,  P.  A.  Munch,  R.  Keyser,  and 
others,  and  he  is  under  special  obligations  to  Dr.  S. 
H.  Carpenter,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  for 
valuable  suggestions. 

This  sketch  does  not  claim  to  be  without  faults. 
The  style  may  seem  dull  and  heavy,  but  it  is  hoped 
that  the  reader  will  be  generous  in  criticising  an 
author  who  now  makes  his  first  appearance  before 
the  American  public.  The  object  of  this  sketch 
has  been  to  present  a  readable  and  truthful  narrative 
of  the  Norse  discovery  of  America,  to  create  some 
interest  in  the  people,  the  literature,  and  the  early 


f: 


'& 


VI 


PREFACE. 


institutions  of  Norway,  and  especially  in  Iceland, — 
that  lonely  and  weird  island,  —  the  Ultima  Thule 
of  the  Greek  Philosophers;  and  of  the  good  or  ill 
performance  of  the  task,  a  generous  public  must  be 
the  judge. 

R.  B.  ANDERSON. 
University  of  Wisconsin, 

June  18,  1874. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Norsemen,  and  other  Peoples,  interested  in 

THE  Discovery  of  America, *J 

CHAPTER  II. 

Norse   Literature   has   been    Neglected    by   the 

Learned  Men  op  the  Great  Nations,     -       -       -      15 

CHAPTER  III. 
Antiquity  of  America, 20 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Phenician,  Greek,  Irish,  and  Welsh  Claims,       -       -      32 

CHAPTER  V. 
Who  Were  the  Norsemen? 34 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Iceland, *® 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Greenland, ^^ 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
The  Ships  of  the  Norsemen,     - 38 


If 
h 


viii  f  •<  >NTKNTH. 

CHAPTKR   IX. 
The  Sagas  anm)  I)o<  uments  auk  (iJenuink,       -        -       -      41 

CHAPTER   X. 
Bjarne  Hekjui-fson,  1)80,      • 45 

CHAPTER   XI. 
Leik  Euikson,  1000, 48 

CHAPTER  XII. 
TnoRWALD  EiuKsoN,  1003, 52 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
Thokstein  F  ukson,  1005, 56 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

TlIORKINN    KaULSEFNE   AND   (iUDRID,    1007.  -  -  -        57 

CHAPTER  XV. 
The  Discovery  ok  America  by  Colimbus,       -       -       -      03 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Oiher  Expeditions  by  the  Norsemen,    -        ...      65 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Conclusion, -       -  -      74 

APPENDIX. 
The  Scandinavian  Lvncuacjes,  -       -       -       •       -       -      77 


n 


CHAPTER    I. 


THE  NORSEMEN,  AND  OTHER  PEOPLES,  INTERESTED 
IN   THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA. 

rpiIIE  object  of  the  following  pages  is  to  present 
-^  the  reader  with  a  brief  account  of  the  discovery 
of,  early  voyages  to,  and  settlements  in  the  Western 
Continent  by  the  Norsemen,  and  to  prove  that  Co- 
lumbus must  have  had  knowledge  of  this  discovery 
l)y  the  Norsemen  before  lie  started  to  find  America ; 
and  the  author  will  not  be  surprised,  if,  in  these 
pages,  he  should  happen  to  throw  out  some  thoughts 
which  will  conflict  with  the  reader's  previously- 
formed  convictions  about  matters  and  things  gen- 
erally, and  about  historical  facts  especially. 

The  interest  manifested  by  the  reader  of  history 
is  always  greater  the  nearer  the  history  which  he 
reads  is  connected  with  his  own  country  or  with 
his  own  ancestors. 

The  American  student,  on  the  one  hand,  loves 


'Hi 

ft 


¥ 


10 


AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVERED    BY   COLUMBUS. 


>V! 


1' 


i^t 


to  gaze  upon  the  pages  of  American  history.  He 
admires  the  resohition,  the  fortitude  and  persever- 
ance of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  as  they  passed  through 
tlieir  varied  scenes  of  hardship  and  adversity  when 
they  made  their  first  settlement  upon  our  New 
England  shores;  and  his  whole  soul  is  filled  with 
transporting  emotions  of  delight  or  sympathy  as  he 
reads  the  thrilling  incidents  of  the  sufferings  and  the 
victories  of  his  countrymen  who  fought  for  his  as 
well  as  for  their  own  freedom  during  rhe  Revolu- 
tionary war. 

The  Norse  student,  on  the  other  hand,  takes 
special  pleasure  in  perusing  the  old  Sagas  and  Ed- 
das,  and  following  the  Vikings  on  their  daring  but 
victorious  expeditions  through  European  waters ;  and 
he  draws  inspiration  from  those  beautiful  and  poet- 
ical ancient  myths  and  stories  about  Odin,  Thor, 
Baldur,  Loke,  the  Giant  Ymer,  Ragnarokr,  Ygg- 
drasil,  and  that  innumerable  host  of  godlike  heroes 
that  illuminate  the  pages  of  his  people's  ancient 
history,  and  glitter  like  brilliant  diamonds  in  the 
dust  and  darkness  of  bygone  ages. 

The  subject  to  which  your  attention  is  invited, 


8. 


AMERICA   NOT   DISCOVERED     BY   COLUMBUS. 


11 


ry.  He 
3ersever- 
througli 
;.)  when 
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ed  with 
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and  the 
r  his  as 
Revoli.i- 


tlie  discovery  of  AmeriGa^  is,  if  properly  presented, 
of  equal  interest  to  Americans  and  Norsemers.  For 
those  who  are  born  and  brought  up  on  the  fertile 
soil  of  Columbia,  under  the  shady  branches  of  the 
noble  tree  of  American  liberty,  where  the  banner 
of  progress  and  education  is  unfurled  to  the  breeze, 
must  naturally  feel  a  deep  interest  in  whatever 
facts  may  be  presented  in  relation  to  the  first  dis- 
covery and  e«-rly  settlement  of  this  their  native  land ; 
while  those  who  first  saw  the  sunlight  beaming 
among  the  rugged,  snow-capped  mountains  of  old 
Norway,  and  can  still  feel  any  of  the  heroic  blood  of 
their  dauntless  forefithers  course  its  way  through 
their  veins,  must,  as  a  matter  of  course,  feel  an  equally 
deep  interest  in  learning  that  their  own  ancestors, 
the  intrepid  Norsemen,  were  the  first  pale-faced 
men  who  planted  their  feet  on  this  gem  of  the 
ocean,  and  an  interest  too,  I  dare  say,  in  having 
the  claims  of  their  native  country'  to  this  honor  vin- 
dicated. 

The  subject  is  not  without  special  interest  to 
the  Germans^  as  it  will  appear  in  the  course  of  this 
sketch  that  a  German,  who  accompanied  the  Norse- 


12 


AMERICA   NOT    DISOOVEKEU    BY    COLUMBUS. 


(^ 


'M 

i 

IV: 

K 


men  on  their  iirst  expedition  to  this  Western  "World, 
is  intimately  connected  with  the  first  name  of  this 
country;  and  there  is  no  doubt  tnat  a  German, 
tlirough  his  writings  about  the  Norsemen,  was  tht 
means  of  bringing  to  Columbus  valuable  information 
about  America. 

The  Welsh  also  have  an  interest  in  this  subject; 
for  it  is  generally  believed,  and  not  without  reason, 
that  their  ancestors,  under  the  leadership  of  Madoc, 
made  a  settlement  in  this  country  about  the  year 
1170;  thus,  although  they  were  170  years  later 
than  the  Norsemen  in  making  the  discovery,  they 
were  still  322  years  ahead  of  Columbus,  and  Norse- 
men, therefore,  claim  in  this  question,  Welshmen's 
sympathies  against  Columbus. 

We  might  enlist  the  interest  of  Irishmen,  too,  in 
the  presentation  of  this  subject;  for  in  the  year 
1029  (according  to  an  account  in  the  Eyrbyggja 
Saga,  chapter  64),  a  Norse  navigator,  by  name 
GuDLEiF  GuDLAUGSON,  undcrtook  a  voyage  to  Dub- 
lin, and  on  leaving  Ireland  again  he  intended  to 
sail  to  ^  oeland ;  but  he  met  with  northeast  winds 
and   was  driven  far  to  the  west   and   southwest   in 


it! 


AMERICA   NOT    DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


13 


the  sea,  where  no  land  was  to  be  seen.  It  was 
ah'eady  late  in  the  summer,  and  Gudleif  with  his 
party  made  many  prayers  that  they  might  escape 
from  the  sea.  And  it  came  to  pass,  says  the  Saga, 
that  they  saw  land,  hut  they  knew  not  what  land 
it  was.  Then  they  resolved  to  sail  to  the  land,  for 
they  were  weary  with  contending  longer  with  the 
violence  of  the  sea.  They  found  there  a  good 
harbor,  and  when  they  had  been  a  short  time  on 
shore,  there  came  some  people  to  them.  They 
knew  none  of  the  people,  but  it  ''^rather  aiypeared 
to  them  that  they  spoke  Irish.'''' 

This  portion  of  America,  supposed  to  be  situated 
south  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  including  North  and 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  East  Florida,  is  in 
the  Saga  of  Thorfin  Karlsefne,  chapter  13,  called 
^'' Irland  edh  M.ykla^''  that  is.  Great  Ireland.  It 
is  claimed  that  the  name,  Great  Ireland^  arose  from 
the  fact  that  the  country  had  been  colonized,  long 
before  Gudlaugsoii' s  visit,  by  the  Irish,  and  that, 
they  coming  from  their  own  green  island  to  a  vast 
continent  possessing  many  of  the  fertile  qualities  of 
their  own   native   soil,  the  appellation   was   natural 


14 


AMERICA   NOT    DISCOVERED    BY   COLUMBUS. 


and  appropriate.  There  is  nothing  improbable  in 
this  conchision ;  for  the  Ivish,  who  visited  and 
inhabited  Iceland  toward  the  close  of  the  eighth 
century,  to  accomplish  which  they  had  to  traverse 
a  stormy  ocean  to  the  extent  of  eight  hundred  miles 
—  who,  as  early  as  725,  were  foi'nd  upon  the  Faroe 
Isles — and  whose  voyages  between  Ireland  and  Ice- 
land, in  the  tenth  century,  were  of  ordinary  occur- 
rence—  a  people  so  familiar  with  the  sea  were 
certainly  capable  of  making  a  voyage  across  the 
Atlantic  Ocean. 

I  cannot  here  enter  upon  any  further  discussion 
of  the  claims  of  the  Irish,  but  you  observe  that 
this  subject  of  discovering  America  cannot  be  treated 
exhaustively  without  bringing  back  to  the  mind 
fond  recollections  of  the  Emerald  Isle,  which  was 
once  the  School  of  Western  Europe,  and  her  brave 

sons 

"Inclyta  gens  hominum,  milite,  pace,  fide," 

as  Bishop  Donatus  somewhere  has  it. 


CHAPTER  II. 


NORSE  LITERATURE  HAS  BEEN  NEGLECTED  BY  THE 
LEARNED  MEN  OF  THE  GREAT  NATIONS. 

TJINLIGHTENED  men  all  over  the  world  are 
-*-'^  watching,  with  astonishment  and  admiration, 
the  New  World,  from  which  great  revolutions  have 
proceeded,  and  in  which  great  problems  in  human 
government,  human  progress  and  enterprise,  are  yet 
to  be  worked  out  and  demonstrated. 

People  are  everywhere  eagerly  observing  every 
event  that  takes  place  in  America,  making  it  the 
subject  of  the  most  careful  scrutiny,  and  the  results, 
wonderful  as  they  are,  everywhere  awaken  the  most 
intense  interest.  If  you  travel  in  England,  in  Ger- 
many, in  Norway,  or  in  any  of  the  North-European 
countries,  it  is  interesting  to  observe  how  familiar 
the  common  people  are  with  matters  and  things  per- 
taining to  America.  They  not  only  know  America 
better  than  they  know  their  border  countries,  but 


16 


AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVERED     BY   COLUMBUS. 


there  also  are  found  not  a  few  who  keep  themselves 
better  posted  on  the  affairs  of  America  than  on 
those  of  their  own  country. 

Until  recently  it  has  generally  been  supposed 
that  America  was  wholly  unknown  to  European 
nations  previous  to  the  time  of  Columbus,  but 
investigations  by  learned  men  have  made  it  cer- 
tain, beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  that  the 
Europeans  did  have  knowledge  of  this  country 
long  before  the  time  of  Columbus,  and  it  has  even 
been  claimed,  on  quite  plausible  grount.ls,  that  some 
of  the  nations  living  here  at  the  time  of  Columbus' 
discovery  of  this  continent  were  descendants  of 
Europeans. 

As  yet  but  few  scholars  have  turned  their  atten- 
tion to  the  North  of  Europe  in  relation  to  this 
subject,  and  hence  the  light  which  this  extreme 
portion  of  the  globe  could  give  has  hitherto  been, 
in  a  great  measure,  neglected  by  the  learned  men 
of  the  great  nations;  and  yet  the  antiqinties  of  the 
North  furnish  a  series  of  incontestable  evidence  that 
the  coast  of  North  America  was  discovered  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  tenth   century,  immediately  after 


AMERICA    NOT    DISCOVERED    BY    COLUMBUS. 


17 


the  discovery  of  Greenland  by  the  Norsemen;  fur- 
thermore, that  this  same  coast  was  visited  repeatedly 
by  the  Norsemen  in  the  eleventh  century;  further- 
more, that  it  was  visited  by  them  in  the  twelfth 
century;  nay,  also,  that  it  was  found  again  by  them 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  revisited  in  ttie  four- 
teenth century.  But  even  this  is  not  all.  These 
Northern  antiquities  also  show  that  Christianity  had 
been  introduced  in  America  not  only  among  the 
Norsemen,  who  formed  a  settlement  here,  but  also 
among  the  aborigines,  or  native  population,  that  the 
Norsemen  found  here. 

The  learned  men  of  the  North  are  not  to  blame 
that  this  matter  has  not  previously  received  due 
attention,  for  ToRFiEus  published  an  account  thereof 
as  early  as  the  year  1705,  and  besides  him  Suhm 
and  ScH(ENiNG  and  Lagerbring  and  Wormskjold 
and  ScHRCEDER,  to  say  nothing  of  many  others, 
have  all  presented  the  main  facts  in  their  historical 
works.  But  other  nations  paid  no  attention  to  all 
this.  Not  until  1837,  when  the  celebrated  Pro- 
fessor Rafn,  through  the  laudable  enterprise  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  Northern  Antiquities,  published 
2 


18 


AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


Ill 


Ml: 


his  learned,  interesting  and  important  work,*  could 
scholars  outside  of  Scandinavia  be  induced  to  examine 
the  claims  of  the  Norsemen.  Professor  Kafn  suc- 
ceeded, and  he  has  perhaps  done  more  than  any 
other  one  man  to  call  the  attention  of  other  nations* 
to  the  importance  of  studying  the  Old  Norse  lite- 
rature. Thus  it  is  that  scholars  of  other  nations 
recently  have  begun  to  direct  their  attention  to 
Northern  Antiquities,  Northern  Languages  and  His- 
tory. Germany  and  England,  and  I  would  like  to 
add  America,  are  now  beginning  to  realize  how 
much  valuable  material  is  to  be  found  in  these 
sources  for  elucidating  the  history  and  institutions 
of  other  contemporary  nations ;  and  especially  do 
the  early  Sagas  of  the  North  throw  much  important 
light  on  the  character  of  English  and  German  insti- 
tutions during  the  middle  ages.  The  English  and 
Germans  are  translating  the  Sagas  as  fast  as  they 
can.  Professors  Konrad  Maurer  and  Th.  Moebius 
are  doing  excellent  work  at  their  respective  Univer- 
sities in  Germany ;  Oxford  and  Cambridge  in  Eng- 
land  have   each   an   Icelandic  Professor,   and  three 


*  Antiquitates  Americans,  Hafnise,  1837. 


AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVERED    BY   COLUMBUS. 


19 


American    Universities*     give     instruction    in     the 
Northern  languages. 

It  is  indeed  an  encouraging  fact  that  these  great 
nations  are  gradually  becoming  conscious  of  the 
importance  of  studying  the  Northern  languages  and 
literature,  and  we  may  safely  hope  that  the  time  is 
not  far  distant  when  the  Norsemen  will  be  recog- 
nized in  their  right  social,  political,  and  literary 
character,  and  at  the  same  time  as  navigators  assume 
their  true  position  in  the  pre-Columbian  discovery 
of  America.f 


*  Cornell  University  in  New  York,  and  the  Michigan  and  Wisconsin 
Universities. 

+  A  step  toward  llie  vindication  of  the  claims  of  the  Norsemen 
to  the  honor  of  having  discovered,  settled,  and  made  America  known 
to  the  world,  has  been  made,  and  a  movement  has  been  inaugurated 
for  the  erection  of  a  monument  in  memory  of  the  Norse  navigator,  Leif 
Erikson,  who  visited  and  explored  America  in  the  year  1000,  nearly 
five  centuries  before  Columbus.  For  the  realization  of  this  object  Ole 
Bull  has  contributed  his  eminent  services.  He  has  already  given  several 
concerts,  both  in  this  country  and  in  Norway,  the  proceeds  of  which  go 
to  the  monument  fund.  Ole  Bull  is  President,  Senator  John  A.  John- 
son, Treasurer,  and  the  writer  of  these  pages  Secretary,  of  the  monument 
committee.  Norway's  famous  poet  and  orator,  BjOrnstjerne  BjOrnson 
(see  Appendix),  has  promised  to  write,  for  the  dedication  of  the  monu- 
ment, a  cantata,  to  which  the  eminent  Norse  composer,  Edward  Gbieg, 
will  write  the  music.  BjOhnson  has  also  promised  to  come  to  America 
in  person  and  deliver  the  dedication  oration. 


1^-.; 


mw 


CHAPTER  III. 


11  .1 


m 


ANTIQUITY   OF   AMERICA. 

"T)  KFORE  the  plains  of  Europe  rose  above  the 
-*-^  primeval  seas,  the  continent  of  America, 
according  to  Louis  Agassiz,  emerged  from  the  watery 
waste  that  encircled  the  whole  globe  and  became 
the  scene  of  animal  life.  Hence  the  so-called  New 
World  is  in  reality  the  Old,  and  Agassiz  gives 
abundant  proof  of  its  hoary  age. 

But  who  is  able  even  to  conjecture  at  what 
period  it  became  the  abode  of  man?  Down  to  the 
close  of  the  tenth  century  its  written  history  is 
vague  and  uncertain.  We  can  find  traces  of  a  rude 
civilization  that  suggest  a  very  high  antiquity.  We 
can  show  mounds,  monuments,  and  inscriptions,  that 
point  to  periods,  the  contemplation*  of  which  would 
make  Chronos  himself  grow  giddy;  yet  among  all 
these  great  and  often  impressive  memorials  there 
is  no  monument,  mound,  or  inscription  that  solves 


M 


AMERICA    NOT   DIKOOVERED   BY   t'OLUMnUS. 


21 


satisfactorily  the  mystery  of  tlieir  origin.  There  are 
but  few  traditions  even  to  aid  us  in  our  researches, 
and  we  can  only  infer  that  age  after  age  nations 
and  tribes  have  continued  to  rise  into  greatness 
and  then  fall  and  decline,  and  that  barbarism  and 
a  rude  culture  have  held  alternate  sway.* 


*  Compare  De  Costa,  page  11. 


i  m 


CHAPTER  IV. 


PHENICIAN,  GREEK,  IRISH  AND  WELSH  CLAIMS. 


■  4 


iliiilii! 


TN  early  times  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  like  all  otlier 
-*-  things  without  known  l)ound8,  was  viewed  by 
man  with  mixed  feelings  of  fear  and  awe.  It  was 
usually  called  the  Sea  of  Darkness. 

Both  Phenician  and  Tyrian  voyages  to  the 
"Western  Continent,  in  early  times,  have  been  warmly 
advocated;  and  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the 
original  inhabitants  of  the  American  continent 
crossed  the  Atlantic  instead  of  piercing  the  icy 
regions  of  the  north  and  coming  by  the  way  of 
Behring's  Strait.  From  the  Canaries,  which  were 
discovered  and  colonized  by  the  Phenicians,  it  is  a 
short  voyage  to  America,  and  the  bold  sailors  of 
the  Mediterranean,  after  touching  at  these  islands, 
could  easily  and  safely  be  wafted  to  the  western 
shore. 


AMERICA   NOT    DISCOVERED    BY    COLUMBUS. 


23 


That  the  Greek  philosopher,  Pytheas,  whoso 
discoveries  about  the  different  length  of  the  days 
in  various  climates  appeared  so  astonishing  to  the 
other  philosophers  of  his  age,  traversed  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  about  3-iO  years  before  Christ,  can  scarcely 
be  doubted.  He  certainly  discovered  Thule*  (Ice- 
land), and  determined  its  latitude,  and  we  may  at 
least  say,  that  by  this  discovery  he  opened  the  way 
to  America  for  the  Norsemen. 

Claims  have  been  made,  as  I  have  already  shown, 
both  by  the  Irish  and  by  the  Welsh,  that  they 
crossed  the  Atlantic  and  found  America  before 
Columbus,  but  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  comment 
upon  these  claims  in  this  short  sketch.  Much 
learned  discussion  has  been  devoted  to  the  subject, 
but  the  early  history  of  the  American  continent  is 
still,  to  a  great  extent,  veiled  in  mystery,  and  not 
until  near  the  close  of  the  tenth  century  of  the 
present  era  can  we  point,  with  absolute  certainty, 
to  a  genuine  trans- Atlantic  voyage. 


*  See  Strabo'8  Geography,  Book  II,  S  6. 


lir 

I  : 


II  V 


!i     !' 


CHAPTER  V. 


WHO   V/ERE   THE  NORSEMEN? 

r  I  IJIE  iirst  voyage  to  America,  of  which  we  have 
-*-  any  perfectly  reliable  account,  was  performed 
by  the  Norsemen. 

But  who  were  the  Norsemen  ?  Permit  me  to 
answer  this  question  briefly. 

The  Norsemen  were  the  descendants  of  a  branch 
of  the  Gothic  race  that,  in  early  times,  emigrated 
from  Asia  and  traveled  westward  and  northward, 
Anally  settling  down  in  what  is  now  the  west  cen- 
tral part  of  the  kingdom  of  Norway.  Their  lan- 
guage was  the  Old  Norse,  which  is  still  preserved 
and  spoken  in  Iceland,  and  upon  it  are  founded  the 
modern  Norse,  Danish,  and  Swedish  languages. 

The  ancient  Norsemen  were  a  bold  and  inde- 
pendent people.  They  were  a  free  people.  Their 
rulers  were  elected  by  the  people  in  convention 
assembled,    and    all    public    matters    of   importance 


i'. 


AMERICA   NOT   DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


25 


were    decided    in    the    assemblies,    or   open    parlia- 
ments of  the  people. 

Abroad  they  became  the  most  daring  adven- 
turers. They  made  themselves  known  in  every 
part  of  the  civilized  world  by  their  daring  as  sol- 
diers and  navigators.  They  spread  themselves  along 
tlie  shores  of  Europe,  making  conquests  and  plant- 
ing colonies. 

In  their  conquering  expeditions  they  subdued  a 
large  portion  of  England,  wrested  Normandy,  the 
fairest  province  of  France,  from  the  French  king, 
conquered  a  considerable  portion  of  Belgium,  and 
made  extensive  inroads  into  Spain.  Under  Robert 
Guiscard  they  made  themselves  masters  of  Sicily 
and  lower  Italy  in  the  eleventh  century,  and  main- 
tained their  power  there  for  a  long  time.  During 
the  Crusades  they  led  the  van  of  the  chivalry  of 
Europe  in  rescuing  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  and  ruled 
over  Antioch  and  Tiberias  under  Harald.  They 
passed  between  the  pillars  of  Hercules,  they  deso- 
lated the  classic  fields  of  Greece  and  penetrated  the 
walls  of  Constantinople. 

Straying  away  into  the  distant  east,  from  where 


;i 


26 


AMERICA   NOT   DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


I 


!  ■!|ll 


i ' ' 
>  \ 


they  originally  came,  we  llnd  them  laying  the! 
foundations  of  the  Russian  Empire,  swinging  their 
two-edged  battle-axes  in  the  streets  of  Constantino- 
ple, where  they  served  as  the  leaders  of  the  Greek 
Emperor's  body-guard,  and  the  main  support  of  his 
tottering  throne.  They  carv^ed  their  mystic  runes 
upon  the  marble  lion*  in  the  harbor  of  Athens 
in  commemoration  of  their  conquest  of  this  city. 
The  old  Norse  Vikings  sailed  up  the  rivers  Rhine, 
Schelde,  the  Seine  and  Loire,  conquering  Cologne 
and  Aachen,  where  they  turned  the  emperor's  palace 
into  a  stable,  filling  the  heart  of  even  the  great 
Charlemagne  with  dismay. 

The  rulers  of  England  are  descendants  of  the 
Norsemen.  Ganger  Rolf,  known  in  English  history 
by  the  name  Rollo,  a  son  of  Harald  Haarfagr's 
friend,  Ragnwald  Moerejarl,  invaded  France  in  the 
year  912  and  took  possession  of  Kormandy;  and  in 
1066,  at  the  battle  of  Hastings,  William  the  Con- 
queror, a  great-grandson  of  Ganger  Rolf,  conquered 
England;  and  it  is  proper  to  add,  that  from  this 


*  The  marble  liou  upon  which  they  carved  their  runes  was  afterwards 
taken  to  Venice  and  erected  at  the  entrance  of  tlie  arsenal,  where  it  may 
be  seen  at  the  present  time. 


lis 


AMEKICA    NOT   DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


27 


jconquest    the    pride    and    glory    of    Great    Britain 
lescended. 

It  is  also  a  noticeable  fact,  that  the  most  serious 
lopposition  that  William  the  Conqueror  met  with 
jcame  from  colonists  of  his  own  race,  who  had  set- 
Itled  in  Northumbria.  He  wasted  their  lands  with 
pre  and  sword,  and  drove  them  beyond  the  border; 
Ibut  still  we  find  their  energy,  their  perseverance 
land  their  speech  existing  in  the  north  English  and 
llowland  Scotch  dialects. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


ICELAND. 


"T^UT  Europe  did  not  set  bounds  to  the  voyages  I 
-*-^  and  enterprises  of  the  Norsemen.  In  the  year 
860  they  discovered  Iceland,  and  soon  afterwards  | 
established  upon  this  island  a  republic,  which  flour- 
ished four  hundred  years.  The  Icelandic  republic  I 
furnishes  the  very  best  evidence  of  the  independent! 
spirit  which  characterized  the  Norsemen. 

Political   circumstances   in   Norway   urged   many 
of  the  boldest  and  most  independent  people  in  the  I 
country   to   seek   an   asylum   of  freedom.      Harald 
Haarfagr  ('.  e.  the  Fair-haired)  had  determined  to 
make   himself   monarch    of   all    Norway.      He   was 
instigated    to    unite    Norway   under  his    scepter  by 
the  ambition  of  the  fair  and   proud  Ragna  Adil8-| 
DATTER    (daughter),   whom    he    loved    and    courted: 
but  she  declared  that  the  man  she  married  would  I 
have  to  be  king  of  all  Norway.     Harald  accepted 


AMERKiA    NOT    DISCOVERED    BY   COLUMBUS. 


29 


the  conditions;  and  after  twelve  years'  hard  fight- 
ing, during  whicli  time  he  neither  cut  nor  combed 
his  liair  once,*  in  the  year  872,  at  the  battle  of 
Hafrs^'ord,  Norway  became  united  into  one  king- 
dom, instead  of  being  divided  into  thirty-one  small 
republics,  as  had  been  the  case  before  that  time. 

Harald  had  subdued  or  slain  the  numerous  lead- 
ers, and  had  passed  a  law  abolishing  all  freehold 
tenure  of  property,t  usui'ping  it  for  the  crown.  To 
this  the  proud  freemen  of  Norway  would  no;  sub- 
mit. Disdaining  to  yield  their  ancient  independ- 
ence and  be  degraded,  they  resolved  to  leave  those 
lands  and  homes,  which  they  could  now  scarcely 
call  their  own,  and  set  out  with  their  families  and 
followers  in  quest  of  new  seats.  There  were  as 
great  emigrations  from  Norway  in  those  days  as 
there  are  now.  The  Norse  spirit  of  enterprise  is 
as  old  as  tneir  history. 

Whither  then  should  they  go,  was  the  question. 

*  He  made  a  pledge  to  Ragna  that  he  would  neither  cut  nor  comb  his 
hair  until  he  had  subjugated  all  Norway. 

t  This  so-called  udal,  [Icel.  6dal,  Norse  odel,  allodium,]  i.  e.  independent 
tenure  of  property,  was  given  back  to  the  Norsemen  by  King  Hakon  the 
Good  in  the  year  935,  and  has  never  since  been  taken  away  from  them. 


i    ;  ' 


30 


AMERICA   NOT   DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


''I  ■ 

lili 


V'l    I  III 


ki  liil;ii 


iPrI 


Some  went  to  the  Hebrides,  others  to  the  Ork- 
ney isles;  some  to  the  Shetland  and  Faroe  isles; I 
many  went  as  Yikings  to  England,  Scotland  and 
France;  but  by  far  the  greater  number  went  to  the 
more  distant  and  therefore  more  secure  IcelaiiJ. 
which  had  been  discovered  by  the  celebrated  Norse! 
Viking  Naddodd  in  860,  and  called  by  him  Snow- 
land  ;  rediscovered  by  Gardar,  of  Swedish  extrac- 
tion in  864,  after  whom  it  was  called  Gardar's 
Holm  (island),  and  visited  by  two  Norsemen,  Ingolfr 
and  Leif  (Hjoerleifr)  in  870,  by  whom  it  was  called 
Iceland.  This  emigration  from  Norway  to  Iceland 
began  in  the  year  874,  a  thousand  years  ago  this 
summer;  and  thus  this  strange  island  was  peopled 
—  and  in  a  few  years  peopled  to  a  surprising  ex- 
tent. It  was  not  long  before  it  had  upwards  of 
50,000  inhabitants.  You  must  bear  in  mind  that 
this  colonization  was  on  an  island  in  the  cold  North 
Sea,  a  little  below  the  Arctic  Circle.  It  was  in  a 
climate  where  grain  refused  to  ripen,  and  where  the 
people  often  were  obliged  to  shake  the  snow  off 
the  frozen  hay  before  they  could  carry  it.  Fishing, 
the  main  support  of  the  people,  was  often  obstructed 


AMERICA   NOT    DISC<^VERED    BY   COLUMBUS. 


31 


by  ice  from  the  polar  regions  iilling  their  liarbors, 
and  the  whole  island  presented  a  most  melancholy 
aspect  of  desolation.  But  still  the  people  continued 
to  flock  thither  and  become  attached  to  the  soil. 
They  were  surrounded  the  whole  year  by  dreary 
ice-mountains,  the  glare  of  volcanic  flames,  and  the 
roaring  of  geysers  or  boiling  springs.  Still  they 
loved  this  wild  country,  because  they  were  free^ 
and  through  the  long  winters,  when  the  sun  nearly 
or  entirely  disappeared  from  above  the  horizon,  and 
nothing  but  northern  lights  flickered  over  their 
heads,  they  seemed  only  the  more  thrown  upon 
their  intellectual  resources,  and  passed  the  time  in 
reciting  the  Eddas  and  Sagas  of  their  ancestors. 

Perhaps  I  ought  to  beg  your  pardon  for  dwell- 
ing so  long  upon  the  subject  of  Iceland ;  but  my 
apology  is  that,  in  the  first  place,  Iceland  is  of  itself 
an  exceedingly  interesting  country ;  and,  in  the  next 
place,  it  is  really  the  hinge  upon  which  the  door 
swings  which  opened  America  to  Europe.  This 
I  island  had  been  visited  by  Pytheas  340  years  before 
Ohri;t;  and,  according  to  the  Irish  monk  Dicuilus, 
who  wrote  a  geography   in    the    year   825,   it  had 


32 


AMERICA    NOT   T)I9(X)VEREn    BY   COLUMBUS. 


1.1  1 


:!ll 


\lul 


been  visited  by  some  Irish  priests  in  the  summer  of| 
795.*  It  was  the  settlement  of  Iceland  by  the 
Norsemen,  and  the  constant  voyages  between  thi.s 
island  and  Norway,  that  led  to  the  discovery,  first 
of  Greenland  and  then  of  America;  and  it  is  due 
to  the  high  intellectual  standing  and  fine  historical 
taste  of  the  Icelanders  that  records  of  these  voyages 
M'ere  kept,  first  to  instruct  Coluiubus  how  to  find 
America,  and  afterwards  to  solve  for  us  the  myste- 
ries concerning  the  discovery  of  this  continent. 

Iceland  is  a  small  island,  in  the  65th  deg.  north 
latitude,  of  about  1,800  geographical  square  miles. 
Its  valleys  are  almost  without  verdure,  and  its  mount- 
ains without  trees.  Still,  it  contains,  even  at  the 
present  time,  no  less  than  70,000  inhabitants,  who 
live  a  peaceable  and  contented  life,  still  clinging  to 
their  ancient  language,  and  studying  foreign  lan- 
guages, science,  philosophy,  and  history,  as  we  do 
who  live  in  milder  and  more  favored  climes.  Now, 
as  in  olden  times,  the  earth  trembles  in  the  throes 
of  the  earthquake, —  the  geysers  still  spout  their 
scalding  water,  and  the  plain  belches  forth  mud, — 

*  \l,d.  DicuilU8,  De  Meneura  Orhis  Terrse,  ed.  Latronne,  page  38. 


I  i !  ■  I . 


■^ 


AMERICA    NOT    DISCOVERED    BY    COLL'.MHUS. 


33 


while  ohe  grand  old  jokul,*  Mount  Ilekla,  clad  in 
white  robes  of  eternal  snow,  brandishes  aloft  its 
volcanic  torch,  as  if  threatening  to  set  the  very 
heavens  on  fire. 

For  ages  Iceland  was  destined  to  become  the 
sanctuary  and  preserver  of  the  grand  oM  literature 
of  the  North.  Paganism  prevailed  there  more  than 
a  century  after  the  island  became  inhabited ;  the 
old  traditions  were  cherished  and  committed  to 
memory,  and  shortly  after  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity the  Old  Norse  literature  was  put  .*n  writing. 

The  ancient  literature  and  traditions  of  Iceland 
excel  anything  of  their  kind  in  Europe  during  the 
middle  ages.  The  Icelandic  poems  have  no  paral- 
lel in  all  the  treasures  of  ancient  literature.  There 
are  gigantic  proportions  about  them,  and  great  and 
overwhelming  tragedies  in  them,  which  rival  those 
of  Greece.  The  early  literature  of  Iceland  is  now 
fast  becoming  recognized  as  equal  to  that  of  ancient 
Greece  and  Eome. 

The  original  Teutonic  life  lived  longer  and  more 
independently  in  Norway,  and  especially  in  Iceland, 

*  Mountains  covered  with  perpetual  snow  are  called  *'j6kul8"  in  Iceland. 
3 


8.*- 


84 


AMERICA   NOT   DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


mm 


than  elsewhere,  and  had  more  favorable  opportnni- 
ties  to  grow  and  mature ;  and  the  Icelandic  literature 
is  the  full-blown  flower  of  the  Teutonic  heathen- 
dom. Thib  Teutonic  heathendom,  with  its  beauti- 
ful and  poetical  mythology,  was  rooted  out  by 
superstitious  priests  in  Germany,  and  the  other 
countries  inhabited  by  Teutonic  peoples,  before  it 
had  developed  sufficiently  to  produce  blossoms,  ex- 
cepting in  England,  where  a  kindred  branch  of  the 
Gothic  race  rose  to  eminence  in  letters,  and  pro- 
duced the  Anglo-Saxon  literature. 


CHAPTER   VII. 


GREENLAND. 


T)UT,  as  time  passed  on,  the  people  of  Iceland 
■^-^  felt  a  new  impulse  for  colonizing  new  and 
strange  lands,  and  the  tide  of  emigration  began  to 
tend  with  irresistible  force  toward  Greenland,  in 
the  west,  which  country  also  became  settled  in  spite 
of  its  wretched  climate. 

The  discovery  of  Greenland  was  a  natural  con- 
sequence of  the  settlement  of  Iceland,  just  as  the 
discovery  of  America  afterwards  was  a  natural  con- 
sequence of  the  settlement  of  Greenland.  Between 
the  western  part  of  Iceland  and  the  eastern  part  of 
Greenland  there  is  a  distance  of  only  forty-five 
geographical  miles.  Hence,  some  of  the  ships  that 
sailed  to  Iceland,  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  of 
this  island  and  later,  could  in  case  of  a  violent  east 
wind,  which  is  no  rare  occurrence  in  those  regions, 
scarcely  avoid   approaching  the  coast  of  Greenland 


36 


AMERICA    NOT    niSOOVERED    BY    COLUMBUS. 


Ill 


]\  i 
11    ' 


I  I 


1       I 


,1 


sufficiently  to  catch  a  <j:Hmp8e  of  its  jokuls, —  nay, 
even  to  land  on  its  islands  and  proinoutoric:*.  Thus 
it  is  said  that  Gunnhjorn,  Ulf  Krage's  son,  saw  land 
lying  in  the  ocean  at  the  west  of  Iceland,  when,  in 
the  year  870,  he  was  driven  out  to  the  sea  hy  a 
storm.  Similar  reports  were  heard,  from  time  to 
time,  by  other  mariners.  About  a  (jentury  later  a 
certain  man,  by  name  Erik  the  Red,  had  fled  from 
Jaedern,  in  Norway,  on  account  of  manslaughter, 
and  had  settled  in  the  western  part  of  Iceland. 
Here  he  also  was  outlawed  for  manslaughter,  by 
the  public  assembly,  and  condenmed  to  banishment. 
He  therefore  fitted  out  his  ship,  and  resolved  to 
go  in  search  of  the  land  in  the  west  that  Gunnbjorn 
and  others  had  seen.  He  set  sail  in  the  year  984, 
and  found  the  land  as  l.j  had  expected,  and  re- 
mained there  exploriisg  the  country  for  two  years. 
At  the  end  of  this  period  he  returned  to  Iceland, 
giving  the  newly-discovered  country  the  name  of 
Greenland,  in  order,  as  he  said,  to  attract  settlers, 
who  would  be  favorably  impressed  with  so  pleasing 
a  name. 


AMERICA    NOT    DIBCOVERED   BY    COLUMHl'S. 


37 


TJie  result  was  tliat  many  Icelanders  and  Norse- 
men emigrated  to  Greenland,  and  a  flourishing 
colony  was  eftablished,  with  Gardak  for  its  capi- 
tal city,  wliich,  in  the  year  1201,  became  subject 
to  the  crown  of  Norway.  The  Greenland  colony 
maintained  its  connection  with  the  mother  countries 
for  a  period  of  no  less  than  400  years ;  yet  it  finally 
disappeared,  and  was  almost  forgotten.  Torfa^us 
gives  a  list  of  seventeen  bishops  who  ruled  in 
Greenland. 


Tur^^ 


V       ' 


11 


IF'. 


I 


CHAPTER  YIII. 


THE  SHIPS  OF  THE  NORSEMEN. 

|_> EFORE  following  the  Norsemen  further  on 
-'-^  their  westward  course,  it  may  not  be  out  of 
place  to  sa}''  a  few  vords  about  their  ships.  Hav- 
ing crossed  the  briny  deep  four  times  myself  I 
have  seon  something  of  what  is  required  in  order 
to  venture  with  safety  on  so  long  watery  journeys. 
I  have  also  seen  one  of  the  old  Norse  Viking  ships, 
which  is  preserved  at  the  University  of  Norway, 
and  it  seemed  to  me  an  excellent  one  both  in 
respect  to  form  and  size.  Now,  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  the  old  Norsemen  possessed  such  ocean 
crafts  as  now  plow  the  deep  between  New  York 
and  Liverpool ;  but  what  I  mean  to  say  is  this, 
that  the  Norsemen  were  then,  as  they  are  now,  very 
excellent  navigators.  They  had  good  sea-going  ves- 
sels, some  of  which  were  of  large  size.  We  have 
an  account,  in  Olaf  Tryggvason's  Saga,  of  one  that 


AMERICA   NOT  DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


39 


was  in  many  respects  remarkable.  That  part  of  the 
keel  which  rested  on  the  ground  was  140  feet  long. 
None  but  the  choicest  material  was  used  in  its  con- 
struction. It  contained  thirty-four  rowing-benches, 
and  its  stem  and  stern  were  overlaid  with  gold.* 
Their  vessels  would  compare  favorably  with  those 
of  other  nations,  which  have  been  used  in  later 
times  in  expeditions  around  the  world,  and  were 
in  every  way  adapted  for  an  ocean  voyage.  They 
certainly  were  as  well  fitted  to  cross  the  Atlantic 
as  were  the  ships  of  Cclumbus.  From  the  Sagas 
we  also  learn  that  the  Norsemen  fully  understood 
the  importance  of  cultivating  the  study  of  naviga- 
tion ;  they  knew  how  to  calculate  the  course  of 
the  sun  and  moon,  and  how  to  measure  time  by 
the  stars.  Without  a  high  degree  of  nautical  knowl- 
edge they  could  never  have  accomplished  tlieir  voy- 


*  This  ship  of  Olaf  Tryggvason  was  called  the  Long  Serpent,  and 
was  built  by  the  ship-carpenter  Thorbtrg,  who  is  celebrated  in  the  annals 
of  the  North  for  his  ship-building.  The  Earl  Ilakon  had  a  dragon  contain- 
ing forty  rowing-benches.  King  Canute  had  one  containing  sixty,  and 
King  Olaf,  the  saint,  possessed  two  ships  capable  of  carrying  two  hun- 
dred men  each.  The  Norse  dragons  glided  on  the  waters  as  gracefully 
as  ducks  t  swans,  of  which  they  also  had  the  form.  Compare  also 
"Saga  Frithjofs  ens  Froekna,"  chapter  1,  where  his  good  ship  Ellida  is 
described. 


40 


AMERICA   NOT   DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


fi  "-m 


iiiiiilr'''" 


\:  ! 


|l         .  ' 


nges  to  England,  France,  Spain,  Sicily,  Greece,  and 
those  still  more  difficult  voyages  to  Iceland  and 
Greenland. 

1  have  now  given  a  brief  historical  sketch  of  the 
voyages  and  enterprises  of  the  Norsemen.  I  have 
done  this  to  show  that  they  were  capable  of  the 
exploit  of  discovering  America  —  nay,  that  it  was  in 
fact  an  unavoidable  result  of  their  constant  seafarin? 
life;  so  that  even  if  we  did  not  have  the  unmis- 
takable language  of  the  Sagas,  we  might  still  be 
able  to  assert,  with  a  considerable  degree  of  cer- 
tainty, that  the  Norsemen  must  have  been  aware 
of  the  existence  of  the  American  continent.  Yes, 
the  Norsemen  were  truly  a  great  people !  Their 
spirit  found  its  way  into  the  Magna  Charta*  of 
England  and  into  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
in  America.  The  spirit  of  the  Vikings  still  survives 
in  the  bosoms  of  Englishmen,  Americans  and  Norse- 
men, extending  their  commerce,  taking  bold  posi- 
tions against  tyranny,  and  producing  wonderful 
internal  improvements  in  these  countries. 

*  Compare  William  and  Mary  Howitt. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  SAGAS  AND  DOCUMENTS  ARE  GENUINE. 


"TTTE  have  now  seen  that  the  Norsemen  made 
*  *  themselves  known  in  every  part  of  the 
civilized  world;  that  they  had  excellent  shipsj  that 
they  were  well  trained  seamen,  and  a  highly  civ- 
ilized nation,  possessing  in  fact  all  the  means 
necessary  for  reaching  the  continent  in  the  west ; 
and  we  are  thus  prepared  for  the  vital  question, 
Did  the  Norsemen  actually  discover  and  explore 
the  coast  of  the  country  now  known  as  America? 
There  is  certamly  no  improbability  in  the  idea, 
r^pen  an  atlas  at  the  map  Ox"  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
or  at  the  maps  of  the  two  hemispheres.  Observe 
the  distance  between  Norway  and  Iceland,  and  the 
distances  between  Iceland  and  Greenland,  and  Green- 
land and  Newfoundland.  You  perceive  it  is  more 
than  twice  the  distance  between  Norway  and  Ice- 
land that  it  is  between  Iceland  and  Greenland,  and 


42 


AMERICA   NOT   DISCOVERED    BY   COLUMBUS. 


I   il:        11,1 


i  I 


i\ 


V 


not  far  from  twice  the  distance  that  it  is  between 
Greenland  and  Labrador,  and  thence  pn  to  New- 
foundland. Now,  after  conceding  the  fact  that 
Norse  colonies  existed  in  Greenland  for  at  least 
three  hundred  years,  which  every  student  of  Norse 
history  knows  to  be  a  fact,  we  must  prepare  our- 
selves for  the  proposition  that  America  was  dis- 
covered by  the  Norsemen.  It  would  be  alto- 
gether unreasonable  to  suppose  that  a  seafaring 
people  like  the  Norsemen,  who  traversed  the 
broad  western  ocean  to  reach  Iceland  and  Green- 
land, could  live  for  three  centuries  within  a  short 
voyage  of  this  vast  continent  and  never  become 
aware  of  its  existence. 

But  fortunately  on  this  point  we  are  not  left  to 
conjecture.  We  have  a  complete  written  record  of 
the  discovery.  Intelligent  men  must  first  succeed 
in  blotting  out  innumerable  pages  of  well  authen- 
ticated history,  before  they  undertake  to  deny  or 
dispute  the  facts  of  this  discovery.  While  literary 
darkness  overspread  the  whole  of  the  European 
continent  for  many  centuries  following  the  tenth, 
letters  were  highly  cultivated  in  Iceland;   and  this 


I     ill  .:i 


AMERICA   NOT   DI8C0VERED   BY   C0LUMBU3. 


43 


is  the  very  tinie  and  country  in  which  the  Sagas 
containing  a  record  of  the  discovery  of  America 
originated.  That  they  were  written  long  before 
Columbus,  is  as  easy  to  demonstrate  as  the  fact 
that  Herodotus  wrote  his  history  before  the  era  of 
Christ.  The  authenticity  and  authority  of  the  Ice- 
landic Sagas  has  been  fully  acknowledged  by  Alex- 
ander VON  Humboldt  in  his  Cosmos,*  by  Malte- 
BRUN,t  and  many  other  distinguished  scholars;  and 
therefore  a  further  discussion  is  at  this  time  un- 
necessary on  this  point. 


*  Coamos,  Vol.  IL,  pages  269-272,  where  Alexander  von  Humboldt, 
discussing  the  pre-Columbian  discovery  of  America  by  the  Norsemen, 
says :  "  We  are  here  on  historical  ground.  By  the  critical  and  highly 
praiseworthy  efforts  of  Professor  Rafn  and  the  Royal  Society  of  Northern 
Antiquaries  in  Copenhagen,  the  Sagas  and  documents  in  regard  to  the 
fc;  r'^ditions  of  the  Norsemen  to  Hclluland  (Newfoundland),  to  Markland 
(the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  river  and  Novii  Scotia),  and  to  Vinland 
(Massachusetts)  have  been  published  and  satisfactorily  commented  upon. 
*  *  *  The  discovery  of  the  northern  part  of  America  by  the  Norsemen 
cannot  be  disputed.  The  length  of  the  voyage,  the  direction  in  which 
they  sailed,  the  time  of  the  sun's  rising  and  setting,  are  accurately  given. 
While  the  Challfat  of  Bagdad  was  still  nourishing  under  the  Abbasides, 
and  while  the  rule  of  the  Samanidcs,  so  favorable  to  poetry,  still  flour- 
ished in  Porsia,  America  was  discovered,  about  the  year  1000,  by  Leif, 
son  of  Erik  the  Red,  at  about  41Vi°  N.  L." 

t  Vid.  Nouvelles  annales  des  voyages,  de  la  geographie,  de  rhistoire 
et  de  I'archeologie,  redigees  par  M.  V.-A.  Malte-Bb.n,  secretaire  de  la 
commission  centrale  de  la  societe  de  geographie  de  Paris,  member  de 
plusieurs  societes  savantes.     AoQt,  1858,  pag.  263. 


44 


AMERICA   NOT   DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


H 


f  mil' 

I 
lib 


The  manuscripts,  in  which  we  have  the  Sagas  i 
relating  to  America  are  found  in  the  celebrated 
Codex  Flatceensis,  a  skin-book  that  was  finished  in 
the  year  1387.  This  work,  written  with  great  care 
and  executed  in  the  highest  style  of  art,  is  noy: 
preserved  in  its  integrity  in  the  archives  of  Copen- 
hagen, and  a  carefully  printed  copy*  of  it  is  to  be 
found  in  Mimer's  library  at  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin. We  gather  from  this  work,  that  the  Norse- 
men, after  discovering  and  settling  Greenland,  and 
then  keeping  a  bold  southwestern  course,  discovered 
America  more  than  500  years  before  Columbus;  and 
I  shall  in  the  following  chapters  present  some  of 
the  main  circumstances  of  this  discovery. 

*  Flateyarbok,  Christiania  (Norway),  1860-1868. 


CHAPTER    X. 


BJARNE  HERJULFSON,  986. 


T"N  the  year  986,  the  same  year  that  he  returned 
-^  from  Greenland,  the  above-named  Erik  the 
Red  moved  from  Iceland  to  Greenland,  and  among 
his  numerous  friends,  who  accompanied  him,  was 
an  Icelander  by  name  Herfulf. 

Herjulf  had  a  son  by  name  Bjarne,  who  was  a 
man  of  enterprise  and  fond  of  going  abroad,  and 
who  possessed  a  merchant-ship,  with  which  he  gath- 
ered wealth  and  reputation.  He  used  to  be  by 
turns  a  year  abroad  and  a  year  at  home  with  his 
father.  He  chanced  to  be  away  in  Norway  when 
his  father  moved  over  to  Greenland,  and  on  return- 
ing to  Iceland  he  was  so  much  disappointed  on 
hearing  of  his  father's  departure  with  Erik,  that 
he  would  not  unload  his  ship,  but  resolved  to 
follow  his  old  custom  and  take  up  his  abode  with 
his  father.     "Who  will  sro  witli  me  to  Greenland?" 


pHHirii 


11 


■J.  .ij 


I  ■:.■:    'Ml! 


lL.^All|l| 


I    ''^    ;!i 


46 


AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVERED    BY    C0LUMBU6. 


I,     li 


said  he  to  his  men.  "We  will  all  go  with  yon," 
replied  the  men.  "But  we  have  none  of  ns  ever 
been  on  the  Greenland  Sea  before,"  said  Bjarne. 
"We  mind  not  that,"  said  the  men, —  so  away  they 
sailed  for  three  days  and  lost  sight  of  Iceland. 
Then  the  wind  failed.  After  that  a  north  wind 
and  fog  set  in,  and  they  knew  not  where  they  were 
sailing  to.  This  lasted  many  days,  until  the  sun 
at  length  appeared  again,  so  that  they  could  deter- 
mine the  quarters  of  the  sky,  and  lo !  in  the  horizon 
they  saw,  like  a  blue  cloud,  the  outlines  of  an  un- 
known land.  They  approached  it.  They  saw  that 
it  was  without  mountains,  was  covered  with  wood, 
and  that  there  were  small  hills  inland.  Bjarne 
saw  that  this  did  not  answer  to  the  description  of 
Greenland ;  he  knew  he  was  too  far  south ;  so  he 
left  the  land  on  the  larboard  side  and  sailed  north- 
ward two  days,  when  they  got  sight  of  land  again. 
The  men  asked  Bjarne  if  this  was  Greenland;  but 
he  said  it  was  not,  "  For  in  Greenland,"  he  said, 
"there  are  great  snowy  mountains;  but  this  land 
is  flat  and  covered  with  trees."  They  did  not  go 
ashore,  but  turning   the  bow  from  the  land,   they 


AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVERED   BY    COLrMBU6. 


47 


kept  the  sea  with  a  fine  breeze  from  the  south  wet 
for  three  days,  when  a  third  land  was  seen.  Still 
Bjarne  would  not  go  ashore,  for  it  was  not  like 
what  had  been  reported  of  Greenland.  So  they 
sailed  on,  driven  by  a  violent  southwest  wind,  and 
after  four  days  they  reached  a  land  which  suited  the 
description  of  Greenland.  Bjarne  was  not  deceived, 
for  it  was  Greenland,  and  he  happened  to  land 
close  to  the  place  where  his  father  had  settled. 

It  cannot  be  determined  with  certainty  what 
parts  of  the  American  coast  Bjarne  saw;  but  from 
the  circumstances  of  the  voyage,  the  course  of  the 
winds,  the  direction  of  the  currents,  and  the  pre- 
sumed distance  between  each  sight  of  land,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  the  first  land  that  Bjarne  saw 
in  the  year  986  was  the  present  Nantucket,  one 
degree  south  of  Boston ;  the  second  Nova  Scotia, 
and  the  third  Newfoundland.  Thus  Bjarne  Her- 
JULFSON  was  the  first  European  whose  eyes  beheld 
any  part  of  the  American  continent. 


"■''I 


m .  ^i!i 


liiii''   .' 


lilt'; 


'!^.  i: 


':l!;iii 


h:^ 


I'        i 


i   - 


11 


CHAPTER  XI. 


LEIF  ERIKSON,  1000. 

"TTTHEN  Bjariie  visited  Norway,  a  few  years 
^  '  later,  and  told  of  his  adventure,  he  was 
censured  in  strong  terms  by  Jarl  (Earl)  Erik  and 
others,  l)eeau8e  he  had  manifested  so  little  interest 
that  he  had  not  even  gone  ashore  and  explored 
these  lands,  and  because  he  could  give  no  more 
definite  account  of  them.  Still,  what  he  did  say 
was  sufficient  to  arouse  in  the  mind  of  Leif  Erik- 
son,  son  of  Erik  the  Red,  a  determination  to  solve 
the  problem  and  find  out  what  kind  of  lands  these 
were  that  were  talked  so  much  about.  He  bought 
Bjarne's  ship  from  him,  set  sail  with  a  good  crew 
of  thirty-five  men,  and  found  the  lands  just  as 
Bjarne  had  described  them,  far  away  to  the  south- 
west of  Greenland.  They  landed  in  Helluland 
(Newfoundland)  and  in  Markland  (Nova  Sco- 
tia), explored  these  countries  somewhat,  gave  them 


!  ^^  =i'  ill! 


nrr    il 


AMERICA    NOT    DISCOVEREn    HY    (^ol.UMBUS. 


4!) 


names,  and  proceeded  from  the  latter  into  the  open 
sea  with  a  northeast  wind,  and  were  two  days  at 
sea  hefore  they  saw  land  again.  They  sai  _d  into  a 
sound.  It  was  very  shallow  at  ebb-tide,  so  that 
their  ship  stood  dry  and  there  was  a  long  way  from 
their  ship  to  the  water.  But  so  much  did  they 
desire  to  land  that  they  did  not  give  themselves 
time  to  wait  until  the  water  rose  again  under  their 
ship,  but  ran  at  once  on  shore,  at  a  place  where  a 
river  flows  out  of  a  lake.*  But  as  soon  as  the 
water  rose  up  under  the  ship,  they  rowed  out  in 
their  boats,  floated  the  ship  up  the  river  and  thence 
into  the  lake,  where  they  cast  anchor,  brought  their 
skin  cots  out  of  the  ship,  and  raised  their  tents. 
After  this  they  took  counsel,  and  resolved  to  remain 
through  the  winter,  and  built  a  large  house.  There 
was  no  want  of  salmon,  either  in  the  river  or  in  the 
lake,  and  larger  salmon  than  they  had  before  seen. 
The  nature  of  the  country  was,  as  they  thought,  so 
good  that  cattle  would  not  require  house-feeding  in 
winter.     Day  and   night  were  more   equal   than   in 


*  This  lake  is  Mount  Hope  Bay.    The  tourist,  in  traveling  that  way  by 
rail,  will  at  first  take  Mount  Hope  Bay  for  a  lake.    B.  F.  DcCosta,  page  82. 


50 


AMERICA    NOT    DISCO VK14EU    BY    COLUMBUS. 


I  iil: 


'ill 


■I'll 


Greenland  or  Iceland,  for  on  the  shortest  day  the  sun 
was  above  the  horizon  from  half-past  seven  in  the 
forenoon  till  half-past  four  in  the  afternoon ;  which 
circumstance  gives  for  the  latitude  of  the  place  41° 
24'  10" ;  hence  Leif 's  booths  are  thought  to  have 
been  situated  at  or  near  Fall  River,  Massachusetts. 
Leif  Erikson  called  the  country  Vinland,  and  the 
cause  of  this  was  the  following  interesting  incident: 
There  was  a  German  in  Leif  Erikson's  party  by 
name  Tykker.  Hj  was  a  prisoner  of  war,  but  h^d 
become  Leif  s  special  favorite.  He  was  missing 
day  after  they  came  back  from  an  exploring  expe- 
dition. Leif  Erikson  became  very  anxious  about 
Tyrker,  and  fearing  that  he  might  be  killed  by  wild 
beasts  or  by  Indians,*  he  went  out  with  a  few  men 
to  search  for  him.  Toward  evening  he  was  found 
coming  home,  but  in  a  very  excited  state  of  mind. 
The  cause  of  his  excitement  was  some  fruit  which 
he  had  found,  and  which  he  held  up  in  his  hands, 


I     t 


(\ 


1J  IMJIlllll! 


'{li  'i:  mm 


*  Onr  Noree  colonists  in  Vinland  had  frequent  intercourse  with  the 
natives,  whom  they  called  "Skrielliuger."  This  name  is  derived  from  the 
verb  "skriela,"  which  means  to  peel;  hence  skraelling  (peeling)  alludes  to 
their  small  and  shriveled  aspect.  Compare  also  the  adjective  "skral," 
which  means  slim.  lean. 


AMKRICA    NOT    DISCOVERED    BY    COLUMBUS. 


51 


shouting:  "  Weintrauben !  Weiiitrauben  ! !  Weintrau- 
ben  ! ! ! "  The  sight  and  taste  of  this  fruit,  to  whicli 
lie  had  been  accustomed  in  his  own  native  land, 
had  excited  liim  to  such  an  extent  that  he  seemed 
drunk,  and  for  some  time  he  would  do  nothing 
but  laugli,  devour  grapes  and  talk  German,  which 
language  our  Norse  discoverers  did  not  understand. 
At  last  he  spoke  Norse,  and  explained  that  he,  to 
his  great  joy  and  surprise,  had  found  vines  and 
grapes  in  great  abundance.  From  tb's  circumstance 
the  land  got  the  name  of  Vinland,  and  history  got 
the  interesting  fact  that  a  German  was  along  with 
the  daring  argonauts  of  the  Christian  era. 

Here  is  then  a  short  account  of  the  first  expedi- 
tion to  America.  It  took  place  in  the  year  1000, 
and  Leif  Erikson  w?.s  the  first  pale-faced  man  who 
planted  his  feet  on  the  American  continent.  Give 
Leif  Erikson  a  place  in  history ! 


^i'llil 


■II 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THORWALD  ERIKSON,  1002. 

HTN  the  spring,  when  the  winds  were  favorable, 
-*-  Leif  Erikson  returned  to  Greenland.  The  ex- 
pedition to  Vinland  was  much  talked  of,  and  Thor- 
WALD,  Leif's  brother,  thought  that  the  land  had 
been  much  too  little  explored.  Then  said  Leif  to 
Thorwald :  "  You  may  go  with  my  ship,  brother,  to 
Vinland,  if  you  like."  And  so  another  expedition 
was  fitted  out,  in  the  year  1002,  by  Thorwald  Erik- 
idon,  who  went  to  Vinland  and  remained  there  three 
yesrs;  but  it  cost  him  his  life,  for  in  a  battle  with 
th:>  Skrsel lings  an  arrow  from  one  of  the  natives  of 
America  pierced  his  side,  causing  death.  He  was 
buried  in  Vinland,  and  two  crosses  were  erected  ol 
his  grave — one  at  Iiis  head  and  one  at  his  feet. 
Hallowed  ground  this  beneath  whose  sod  rests  the 
dust  of  the  first  Christian  and  the  first  European 
who  died  in  America!     His  death  and  burial   also 


AMERICA   NOT    DI8(jOVP:RED   BY    COLUMBUS. 


53 


gains  interest  in  anotlier  respect,  for  in  the  year 
1831  there  was  found  in  tlie  vicinity  of  Fall  River, 
Massachusetts,  a  skeleton  in  armor,  and  many  of 
the  circumstances  connected  with  it  are  so  wonderful 
that  it  might  indeed  seem  almost  as  though  it  were 
the  skeleton  of  this  very  Thorwald  Erikson !  This 
skeleton  in  armor  attracted  much  attention  at  the 
time,  was  the  subject  of  much  learned  discussion, 
and  our  celebrated  poet  Longfellow  wrote,  in  the 
year  1841,  a  poem  about  it,  beginning: 

"  Speak  !  speak  !  thou  fearful  guest !" 
After  which   he  makes  the  skeleton   tell   about   his 
adventures  as  a   viking,   about   the   pine  forests   of 
Norway,  about  his  voyage  across   the  stormy  deep, 
and    about    the    discovery   of   America,    concerning 

which  he  says: 

"Three  weeks  we  westward  bore, 
And  when  the  storm  was  o'er, 
Cloudlike  we  saw  the  shore 

Stretching  to  leeward ; 
There  for  my  lady's  bower 
Built  I  the  lofty  tower,* 
Which  to  this  very  hour 
Stands  looking-  seaward." 


li'Hiv* 


•The  tower  here  referred  to  \e  the  famous  Newport  tower  in  Rhode 
Inland,  which  undoubtedly  wae  built  by  the  Noreemen. 


t  ,■       'ill! 


Pilii 


l.lli' 


m 


\\m'      i' 


'!'■      i':ilii 


.i,r 


64  AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVERED    BY    COLUMBUS. 

The  following  are   the   last    two  verses   of  the 
poem : 

"  Still  grew  my  bosom  then, 
Still  as  a  stagnant  fen, 
Hateful  to  rae  were  men, 

The  sunlight  hateful! 
In  the  vast  forest  here, 
Clad  in  my  warlike  gear, 
Fell. I  upon  my  spear, 

Oh,  death  was  grateful! 

"Thus  seamed  with  many  scars, 
Bursting  these  prison  bars, 
Up  to  its  native  stars. 

My  soul  ascended. 
There  from  the  flowing  bowl 
Deep  drinks  the  warrior's  soul : 
Skaal !   to  the  Northland,  skaal ! 

Thus  the  tale  ended." 

The  great  Swedish   chemist  Berzelius  analyzed* 
a  part   of  the  breastplate  which  was  found  on  the 

■"A  bronze  article  found  in  Denmark,  and  dating  with  certainty  back 

to  the  tenth  century,  was  also  analyzed,  and  the  annexed  table  shows  the 

result  of  the  analysis  : 

Breastplate  Bronze  Article 

from  from 

America.  Denmark, 

Copper 70.29 67.13 

Zinc 28.03 20.39 

Tin 0.91 9.24 

Lead 0.74 3.39 

Iron 0.03. 0.11 


AMERICA   NOT   DISCOVERED    BY   COLUMBUS. 


55 


skeleton,  and  found  that  in  composition  it  corre- 
sponded with  metals  used  in  the  North  during  the 
tenth  century ;  and  comparing  the  Fall  Kiver  breast- 
plate with  old  northern  armors,  it  was  also  found 
to  correspond  with  these  in  style. 

When  the  Norsemen  had  buried  their  chief, 
Thorwald,  they  returned  to  Leifsbudir  (Leifs  booths), 
loaded  their  ships  with  the  products  of  the  land 
and  returned  to  Greenland  in  the  year  1005. 


ii'!'  I 


'M 


i  ;M'*'' 


r::'4 


III 


''i;^  ■/^'■!;i 


:,    :f 


Mii 


\  'I 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


THORSTEIN  ERIKSON,  1005. 

r  I  1HEN  the  Sagas  tell  iis  that  Thorstein,  the 
-*-  youngest  son  of  Erik  the  Red,  was  seized 
with  a  strong  desire  to  pass  over  to  Yinland  to 
fetch  the  bod}'^  of  his  brother  Thorwald.  He  was 
married  to  Gudrid,  a  woman  remarkable  foi  her 
beauty,  her  dignity,  her  prudence,  and  her  good 
discourse.  Thorstein  fitted  out  a  vessel,  manned 
it  with  twenty-five  men  selected  for  their  strength 
and  stature,  besides  himself  and  Gudrid.  When 
all  was  ready  they  put  out  to  sea,  and  were  soon 
out  of  sight  of  land.  Through  the  whole  summer 
they  were  tossed  about  on  the  deep  and  were 
driven  they  knew  not  whither.  Finally  they  made 
land,  which  they  found  to  be  Lysefjord,  on  the 
western  coast  of  Greenland.  Here  Thorstein  and 
several  of  his  men  died,  and  Gudrid  returned  to 
Eriksfjord. 


CHAPTER  XIY. 


THORFINN   KARLSEFNE    AND   GUDRID,  1007. 

ri  iHE  most  distinguished  explorer  of  Vinland 
-*-  was  Thorfinn  Karlsefnp:.  He  was  a  wealthy 
and  influential  man.  He  was  descended  from  the 
most  famous  families  in  the  North.  Several  of  his 
ancestors  had  been  elected  kings.  In  the  fall  of 
1006,  he  came  from  Norway  to  Eriksfjord  with 
two  ships.  Karlsefne  made  rich  presents  to  Leif 
Eiikoon,  and  Leif  offered  the  Norse  navigator  the 
hospitalities  of  Brattahlid  during  winter.  After  the 
Yule  festival  Thorfinn  began  to  treat  with  Leif  as 
to  the  marriage  of  Gudrid,  Leif  being  the  person 
to  whom  the  right  of  betrothment  belonged.  Leif 
gave  a  favorable  ear  to  his  advances,  and  in  the 
course  of  the  winter  their  nuptials  were  celebrated 
with  due  ceremony.  The  conversation  frequently 
turned  at  Brattahlid  upon  Vinland  the  Good,  many 
saying    that    an    expedition    thither    held    out    fair 


IP 

w 


58 


AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVKRKD    BV    COLUMBUS. 


prospects  of  gain.  The  result  was  that  Thorfinn, 
accompanied  by  liis  wife,  who  urged  him  to  the 
undertaking,  sailed  to  Yinland  in  the  spring  of 
1007,  and  remained  there  three  years.  The  Sagas 
lay  considerable  stress  upon  the  fact  that  Gudrid 
persuaded  him  to  undertake  this  expedition.  She 
also  appears  to  have  taken  a  prominent  part  in 
the  whole  enterprise.  Imagine  yourself  way  oft'  in 
Greenland.  Imagine  Gudrid  and  Thorfinn  Karl- 
sefne  taking  a  walk  together  on  the  sea-beach,  and 
Gudrid  talking  to  her  husband  in   this  wise  : 

"  I  wonder  that  you,  Thorfinn,  with  good  ships 
and  many  stout  men,  and  plenty  of  means,  should 
choose  to  remain  in  this  barren  spot  instead  of 
searching  out  the  famous  Yinland  and  making  a 
settlement  there.  Just  think  what  a  splendid 
country  it  must  be,  and  what  a  desirable  change 
for  all  of  us.  Thick  and  leafy  woods  like  those 
of  old  Norway,  instead  of  these  rugged  clift^s  and 
snow-clad  hills.  Fields  of  waving  grass  and  rye 
instead  of  moss-covered  rocks  and  sandy  soil.  Trees 
large  enough  to  build  houses  and  ships  instead  of 
willow  Lushes,    that  are  tit  for  nothing  except   to 


AMERICA   NOT    DISCOVERKD    BY   COLUMBUS. 


59 


[gave  our  cattle  from  starvation  when  the  hay-crop 
runs  out ;  besides  longer  sunshine  in  winter,  and 
more  genial  warmth  all  the  year  round,  instead  of 
howling  winds  and  ice  and  snow.  Truly  1  think 
this  country  has  been  wofully  misnamed  when  they 
(called  it  Greenland." 

You  can  easily  imagine  that  Thorfinn  was  con- 
[  vinced  by  such  persuasive  arguments,  and  he  resolved 
I  to  follow  his  wife's  advice. 

The  expedition  which  now  set  out  for  Vinland 
I  was  on  a  much  larger  scale  than  any  of  the  expedi- 
tions that  had  preceded  it.  That  Leif  and  Thorwald 
[and  Thorstein  had  not  intended  to  make  their  per- 
manent abode  in  Vinland  was  plain,  from  the  fact 
that  they  brought  neither  women  nor  flocks  nor 
herds  with  them.  Karlsefne,  on  the  other  hand, 
went  forth  fully  equipped  for  colonization.  The 
party  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-one  men 
and  seven  women.  A  numbei  of  cattle  and  sheep 
were  also  carried  on  this  occasion  to  Vinland.  They 
all  arrived  there  in  safety,  and  remained,  as  has 
been  stated,  three  years,  when  hostilities  between 
them  and  the  Skraellings  compelled  them  to  give 
I  up  their  colony. 


1*1 


'ill 


ill 


hi 

m 


W> 


60 


AMERICA    NOT    DISCOVERED    BY    COLUMBUS. 


bi'f 


The  Saga  gives  a  very  full  account  of  Thorlinnii 
enterprises  in  Vinland ;  about  the   traffic  with  the| 
Skrsellings;  about  the  development  of  the  colony, 
etc. ;  all  of  which  I  am  compelled  to  omit  in  tliisl 
sketch.     I  must  call  attention,  however,  to  the  inter- 
esting fact  that  a  son  was  born   to  Thortinn  and 
Gudrid  the  year  after  they  had   established   theni| 
selves  in   their    quarters  at   Straum^ord   (Buzzard's 
Bay).     His  name  was   Snorre  Thorfinnson.     He  I 
was  born  in  the  present  State  of  Massachusetts,  in 
the  year  1008,  and  he  was  the  first  man  of  Euro- 
pean   blood   of    whose    birth   in   America  we   have 
any  record.     From  him  the  famous  sculptor,  Albert 
Thorwaldsen,  is  lineally  descended,   besides  a  lung 
train  of  learned  and  distinguished   men,  who  have 
flourished  during  the  last  eight  centuries  in  Iceland! 
and  Denmark. 

In  the  next  place,  attention  is  invited  to  anl 
inscription  on  a  rock,  situated  on  the  right  bank  of  I 
the  Taunton  river,  in  Bristol  county,  Massachusetts. 
It  is  familiarly  called  the  Dighton  Writing  Kocr 
Inscription.  It  stands  in  the  very  region  whicli 
the  Norsemen    frequented.      It  is  written   in   char- 


lift 


AMERICA    NOT    DI8C()VEREn    BY    COLUMBUS. 


61 


iters  which  the  natives  have  never  used  nor  sciilp- 
jtiired.    This  inscription  was  copied  by  Dr.  Danforth 
early   as   1680,   by   Cotton   Mather   in    1712;    it 

iras  copied  by  Dr.  Greenwood  in  1730,  j;y  Stephen 
Jewell  in  1768,  by  James  Winthrop  in  1788,  and 
las  been  copied  at  least  four  times  in  the  present 
century.  The  rock  was  seen  and  talked  of  by  the 
irst  settlers  in  New  England,  long  before  anything 

ras  said   about   the  Norsemen   discovering  America 

efore  Columbus. 

Hear  the  center  of  the  inscription  we  read  dis- 
tinctly, in  Koman  characters, 

CXXXI, 

^hich  is  151,*  the  exact  number  of  Thortinn's  party. 

?hen  we  find  an  N,  a  boat,  and  the  Runic  character 
for  M,  which  may  be  interpreted  "  N(or8e)  seafaring 
|M(en)."  Besides  we  have  the  word  NAM  —  took 
[(took  possession),  and  the  whole  of  Thorfinn's  name, 

nth  the  exception  of  the  first  letter.  Repeating 
Ithese  characters  we  have 

ORFIN,  CXXXI,  N  ^^^^   M,  NAM, 


*The  Icelanders  reckoned  twelve  decades  to  the  hundred,  and  called 
pt  stort  hundrad  (great  hundred). 


,*\ 


62 


AMERICA    NOT    D18C0VEBED    BY    COLUMBUS. 


I- 


which  lias  been   interpreted   by   Prof.  Rafn   as  fol 
lows:      "Thorlin,   with   one  hundred   and  fifty-oiiel 
Norse   seafaring  men    took  possession   of   tliis  land 
(landnam)." 

In  the  lower  left  corner  of  the  inscription  is  a  I 
figure  of  a  woman  and  a  child,  near  the  latter  A 
which  is  the  letter  S,  reminding  lis  most  forcibly 
of  Gudrid  and  her  son,  Snorre.  Upon  the  whole  | 
the  Dighton  Writing  Rock  removes  all  doubt  con- 
cerning the  presence  of  Thoi*finn  Xarlsefne  and  the  I 
Norsemen  at  Taunton  river,  in  the  beginning  of  tlie| 
eleventh  century. 


CHAPTER  XY. 


OTHER  EXPEDITIONS  BY  THE  NORSEMEN. 

rriHE    Sagas    give    elaborate    accounts    of    other 

-■-      expeditions    by   the    Norsemen    to    Yinland. 
Thus  there  is  one    by   Freydis  in   the  year  1011 ; 

and  in   the  year  1121  the  Bishop  Erik  Upsi   went 

as  a  missionary  to  Vinland. 

Then  there  are  Sagas  that  give  accounts  of  expe- 
ditions by  Norsemen  to  Great  Irland  (North  and 
South  Carolina,  Georgia  and  Florida),  but  I  will 
omit  these  in  the  present  sketch. 

The  last  expedition  mentioned  was  in  the  year 
1347,  but  this  was  in  the  time  of  the  Black  Plague, 
which  raged  throughout  Euro]te  with  unrelenting 
fury  from  1347  to  1351,  and  also  reached  Iceland, 
Greenland  and  Vinland,  and  cut  off  communication 
between  these  countries.  The  Black  Plague  reduced 
the  population  of  Norway  alone  from  two  millions 
to  three  hundred  thousand,  and  this  fact  gives  us 


64 


AMP:RI0A    not    disco VKBEO    by    OOLUMHUrt. 


some  idea  of  the  terri})le  ravages  of  this  fearful 
epidemic.  It  is  evident  that  the  Black  Plague  left 
no  surplus  population  for  expeditions  to  America 
or  elsewhere. 


I    : 


CHAPTER  XVT. 


THE   DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA   BY  COLUMBUS. 

T"  WILL  now  devote  a  few  pages  to  pointing  out 
-^  some  of  the  threads  that  connect  this  discovery 
of  America  by  the  Norsemen  with  the  more  recent 
and  better-known  discovery  by  Columbus. 

1.  From  a  letter  which  Columbus  himself  wrote, 
and  which  we  find  quoted  in  Washington  Irving's 
Columbus*  we  know  positively  that  while  the 
design  of  attempting  the  discovery  in  the  west  was 
maturing  in  the  mind  of  Columbus,  he  made  a 
voyage  to  the  north  of  Europe,  and  visited  Iceland. 
This  was  in  February,  1477,  and  in  his  conversation 
with  the  Bishop  and  other  learned  men  of  Iceland, 
he  must  have  been  informed  of  the  extraordinary 
fact,  that  their  countrymen  had  discovered  a  great 
country  beyond  the  western  ocean,  which  seemed 
to  extend  southward  to  a  great  distance.     This  was 


*  Vol.  I,  page  59. 


it 


wmmmm 


66 


AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVERED    BY    COLUMBUS. 


liif 


m 


a  cireiimRtance  not  likely  to  rest  quietly  in  the 
active  and  speculative  mind  of  the  great  geographer 
and  navigator.  The  reader  will  observe  that,  when 
Columbus  was  in  Iceland,  in  the  year  1477,  fifteen 
years  before  he  discovered  America,  only  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  years  had  elapsed  since  the  last 
Norse  expedition  to  Vinland.  There  were  undoubt- 
edly people  still  living  whose  grandfathers  had 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  it  would  be  altogether 
unreasonable  to  suppose  that  he,  who  was  constant!) 
studying  and  talking  about  geography  and  naviga- 
tion, possibly  could  visit  Iceland  and  not  hear  any- 
thing of  the  land  in  the  west. 

2.  Gudrid,  the  wife  of  Thorfinn  and  mother  of 
Snorre,  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome  after  the  deatli 
of  her  husband.  It  is  related  that  she  was  well 
received,  and  she  certainly  must  have  talked  there 
of  her  ever  memoraWe  trans-oceanic  voyage  to  Vin- 
land, and  her  three  years'  rec'dence  there.  Rome 
paid  much  attention  to  geographical  discoveries,  and 
took  pains  to  collect  all  new  charts  and  reports 
that  were  brought  there.  Every  new  discovery 
was  an   aggrandizement  of   the  papal   dominion,  a 


AMERICA   NOT   DISCOVERED    BY    COLUMBUS. 


67 


new  field  for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  The 
Romans  might  have  heard  of  Vinland  before,  but 
she  brought  personal  evidence. 

3.  That  Vinland  was  Iniowii  at  the  Vatican  is 
clearly  proved  by  the  tact  that  the  Pope  Paschal  II, 
in  the  year  1112,  appointed  Erik  Upsi,  Bishop  of 
Iceland,  Greenland  and  Vinland,  and  Erik  Upsi 
went  personally  to  Vinland  in  the  year  1121. 

4.  Recent  developments  in  relation  to  Columbus 
tend  to  prove  that  he  had  opportunity  to  see  a 
map  of  Vinland,  procured  from  the  Vatican  for  the 
PinzoiiB,  and  it  would  indeed  astonish  us  more  to 
learn  that  he,  with  his  nautical  knowledge,  did  not 
hear  of  America  than  that  he  did.  We  must  also 
bear  in  mind  that  Columbus  lived  in  an  age  of 
discovery;  England,  France,  Portugal  and  Spain 
were  vying  with  each  (/tlier  in  discovering  new 
lands  and  extending  their  territori<;g. 

5.  But  in  addition  to  the  Haoai*,  the  Diguton 
Writing  Rock,  the  Newport  T'/wer  (which  the 
Indians  told  the  early  New  Englaiid  afetijers  was 
built  by  the  giants,  and  the  Norse  discoverers  cer- 
tainly looked   like  giants  to  the  Indians,  8in('^    \he 


m 


m 


u'mf^ 


I 


kd 


!Mi] 


68 


AMERICA    NuT   DISCOVERED    BY   COLUMBUfl. 


former  called  the  latter  Skrsellings),  and  in  addition 
to  the  SKELETON  IN  ARMOR,  we  havG  a  remarkable 
record  of  the  early  discovery  of  America  by  the 
Norsemen  in  the  writings  of  Adam  of  Bremen,  a 
canon  and  historian  of  high  authority,  who  died  in 
the  year  1076.  He  visited  the  Danish  king  Svend 
Esthridson,  a  nephew  of  Canute  the  Great,  and  on 
liis  return  home  he  wrote  a  book  "  On  the  Propa- 
gation  of  the  Christian  Religion  in  the  North  of 
Europe^''  and  at  the  end  of  this  book  he  added  a 
geographical  treatise  "  On  the  Position  of  Denmarlv 
and  other  regions  heyond  DetiinarTc^''  Having  given 
an  account  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway,  Iceland 
and  Greenland,  he  says  that,  ^'besides  these  there  is 
still  another  regi<m,  luhich  has  been  visited  Inj  many, 
lying  in  that  ocean  {the  Atlantic),  which  is  called 
ViNLAND,  because  vines  grow  there  spontaneously, 
jpi'odticing  very  good  wine  /  corn  likeioise  spi'infjx 
up  there  without  being  soum,'^^  and  as  Adam  of 
Bremen  closes  his  account  of  Vinland  he  adds  these 
remarkable  words :  "  T^is  ive  himv  not  by  fabu- 
lous conjecture,  but  from  positive  statements  of  the 
Danes  ^^ 


wm 


^vlill 


AMERICA   NOT    DISCOVERED    BY    COLUMBUS. 


69 


Now,  Adam  of  Bremen's  work  was  first  pub- 
lished in  the  year  1073,  and  was  read  by  intelligent 
men  throughout  Europe ;  and  Columbus,  being  an 
educated  man,  and  so  deeply  interested  in  geo- 
graphical stucies,  especially  when  they  treated  of 
the  Atlantic  Oct,  ,  could  he  be  ignorant  of  so 
important  a  work  ? 

I  have  here  given  five  reasons  why  Columbus 
must  have  known  the  existence  of  the  American 
continent  before  he  startc<l  on  his  voyage  of  discov- 
ery. 1.  Gudrid's  visit  to  Rome.  2.  The  appoint- 
ment, by  Pope  Paschal  II,  of  Erik  Upsi  as  Bishop  of 
Vinland.  3.  Adam  of  Bremen's  account  of  Vinland 
in  his  book  published  in  l(l73.  4.  The  map  pro- 
cured from  the  Vatican  for  the  Pinzons,  which  fact 
I  have  not,  however,  yet  b  "ti  able  to  establish  with 
absolute  certainty ;  and,  5,  which  caps  the  climax, 
Columbus's  own  visit  to  Iceland  in  the  year  1477. 

These  are  stubborn  facts,  and,  if  you  read  the 
l)iography  of  Columbus,  you  will  trnd  tkat  be  always 
maintained  a  tirm  conviction  that  there  was  land 
in  the  west.  He  savs  himself  that  he  based  this 
conviction  on  the  authority  of  the  learned  yrrlters. 


70 


AMERICA   NOT    DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


1, 

1 

tMid.. 

He  stated,  before  lie  left  Spain,  that  he  expected 
to  find  land  soon  after  sailing  about  seven  hundred 
leagues;  hence  he  knew  the  breadth  of  the  ocean, 
and  must  therefore  have  had  a  pretty  definite 
knowledge  of  the  situation  of  Yinland  and  Great 
Ireland.  A  day  or  two  before  coming  in  sight  of 
the  new  world,  he  capitulated  with  his  mutinous 
crew,  promising,  if  he  did  not  discover  land  within 
three  days,  to  abandon  the  voyage.  In  fact  the 
whole  history  of  his  discovery  proves  that  he  either 
must  have  possessed  previous  knowledge  of  America, 
or,  as  some  have  had  the  audacity  to  maintain, 
been  inspired.  We  do  not  believe  in  that  sort  of 
in8])iration.  It  makes  Cohimbus  a  greater  man,  in 
our  estimation,  that  he  formed  his  opinion  by  a 
chain  of  logical  deductions  based  upon  thorough 
study  i\i\(]  research.  It  i^  to  the  credit  of  Columbus, 
we  say,  that  lie  investigated  the  nature  of  things; 
that  he  diligefitly  searched  the  learned  writers ; 
that  he  paid  close  attent'-»n  to  all  reports  of  navi- 
gators, and  gathered  up  all  those  scattered,  gleams 
of  knowledge  that  fell  inefteetually  upon  ordinary 
minds.     Washington  Irving   says:     "When  Colum- 


AMERICA    NOT    DISCOVERED    BY   COLUMBUS. 


71 


bus  had  formed  his  theory,  it  became  fixed  in  his 
mind  with  singular  firmness.  He  never  spoke  in 
doubt  or  hesitation,  but  with  as  much  certainty  as 
if  his  eyes  had  already  beheld  the  promised  land." 
"We  say,  if  he  held  this  firm  conviction  on  only 
presumptive  evidence,  then,  with  all  due  respect  for 
his  distinguished  biographer,  he  is  not  entitled  to 
the  enviable  reputation  for  scholarship  and  good 
judgment  that  has  been  accredited  to  him  by  Wash- 
ington Irving.  We  claim  to  be  vindicating  the 
great  name  of  Columbus,  by  showing  that  he  must 
have  based  his  certainty  upon  equally  certain  facts, 
which  he  possessed  the  ability  and  patience  to  study 
out,  and  the  keenness  of  intellect  to  put  together, 
and  this  gives  historical  impm'tance  to  the  discovery 
of  America  by  the  Norsemen.  The  fault  that  we 
tind  with  Columbus  is,  that  he  was  not  honest 
and  frank  enough  to  tell  where  and  how  he  had 
obtained  his  previous  information  about  the  lands 
which  he  pretended  to  discover;  that  he  sometimes 
talked  of  himself  as  chosen  by  Heaven  to  make  this 
discovery,  and  that  he  made  the  fruits  of  his  labors 
subservient  to  the  dominion  of  inquisition. 


ll'  .■ 


•'W">\V 


72 


AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVERED   BY    COLUMBUS. 


II ■:  ;  ■ 


'"■'ill 


If  our  theory,  then,  does  not  make  Columbus 
out  as  true  and  good  a  man  as  the  reader  may 
liave  considered  him,  we  still  insist  that  it  proves 
him  a  man  of  extraordinary  ability.  It  shows  that 
he  discovered  America  by  study  and  research,  and 
not  by  accident  or  inspiration.  Care  should  always 
be  taken  to  vindicate  great  names  from  accident  or 
inspiration.  It  defeats  one  of  the  most  salutary 
purposes  of  history  and  biography  which  is  to 
furnish  examples  of  what  human  genius  and  laud- 
able enterprise  can  accomplish. 

That  the  Spanish  and  more  recent  colonies  in 
America  could  become  more  permanent  than  the 
Norse  colonies,  is  chiefly  to  be  attributed  to  the 
superiority  that  fire-arms  gave  the  Europeans  over 
the  natives.  The  Norsemen  had  no  fire-arms,  and 
their  higher  culture  could  not  defend  them  against 
the  swarms  of  savages  that  attacked  them.  In  the 
next  place,  the  Black  Plague  reduced  the  popula- 
tion of  Norway  and  Iceland  beyond  the  necessity  or 
even  possibility  to  emigrate.  If  the  communication 
between  Vinland  and  the  North  could  have  been 
maintained  say   one  hundred  years  longer,  that  is 


AMERICA    NOT   DISCOVERED   BY   COLUMBUS. 


73 


to  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  is  difficult 
to  determine  what  the  result  would  have  been. 
Possibly  this  sketch  would  have  appeared  in  Ice- 
landie  instead  of  English.  Undoubtedly  the  Norse 
colonies  would  have  become  firmly  rooted  by  that 
time,  and  Norse  language,  nationality,  and  institu- 
tions might  have  played  as  conspicuous  a  part  in 
America  as  the  English  and  their  posterity  do 
now-a-days. 


1 1 


i 


Ilk' 


I 


'I 


1'' 


CHAPTEK  XVII. 


CONCLUSION. 


1)  UT  it  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  sketch 
-*— ^  to  discuse  this  subject  any  further.  Let  us 
remember  Leif  Erikson,  the  first  white  man  who 
planted  liis  feet  on  American  soil !  Let  us  remem- 
ber his  brother,  Tiiorwald  Erikson,  the  first  Euro- 
pean and  the  first  Christian  who  was  buried  beneath 
American  sod !  Let  us  not  forget  Thorfinn  and 
GuDRiD,  who  established  the  first  European  colony 
in  America!  nor  their  little  son,  Snorre,  the  first 
man  of  European  blood  whose  birthplace  was  in 
the  New  World !  Let  us  erect  a  monument  to  Leif 
Erikson  worthy  of  the  man  and  the  cause;  and 
while  the  knowledge  of  this  discovery  of  America 
lay  for  a  long  time  hid  iu  the  unstudied  literature 
of  Iceland,  let  us  take  this  lesson,  that  ^^  truth 
crushed  to  earth  will  rise  again ; "  that  truth  may 
often  lie  darkened   and    hid   for  a  long  time,   but 


AMKRIGA    NOT    DI8COVERKD    BY    COLUMBUS. 


that  it  is  like  the  beam  of  light  from  a  star  in 
some  far  distant  region  of  the  universe  —  after 
thousands  of  years  it  reaches  some  heavenly  body 
and  gives  it  light. 

In  the  language  of  Mr.  Davis :  "  Let  us  praise 
Leif  Erikson  for  his  courage,  let  us  applaud  him 
for  his  zeal,  let  us  respect  him  for  his  motives,  for 
he  was  anxious  to  enlarge  the  boundaries  of  knowl- 
edge.    He  reached  the  wished  for  land, 

" '  Where  now  the  western  sun 
O'er  fields  and  floods, 
O'er  every  living  soul 
Diffuseth  glad   repose.' 

He  opened  to  the  view  a  broad  region,  where  smil- 
ing hope  invites  successive  generations  from  the 
old  world. 

"  Such  men  as  an  Alexander,  or  a  Tamerlane, 
conquer  but  to  devastate  countries.  Discoverers  add 
new  regions  of  fertility  and  beauty  to  those  already 
known. 

"And  are  not  the  hardy  adventurers,  plowing 
the  briny  deep,  more  attractive  than  the  troops  of 
Alexander,  or  Napoleon,   marching  to  conquer  tlie 


I' ! 

i 

f 

!i 

i 
ii 

i 

i  'H' 
■' 

i 
i 


•r:    J 


v'.. 


76 


AMERICA   IVOT   DISCOVERED    BY   COLUMBUS. 


.'t  * 


world,  with  plumes  waving  in  the  gentle  breeze, 
and  with  arms  glittering  in  the  sunbeams?  Who 
can  tell  all  the  benefits  that  discoverers  confer  on 
mankind  ? 


^\ 


" '  To  count  them  all  demands  a  tlioueand  tongues, 
A  throat  of  brasB  and  adamantine  lunge.' " 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  LAN(iUAUKS; 


Tbeir  Historical,  liwtic,  Literary  aid  Scientific  Valne. 

KtrCIDATBU    BY 

QUOTATIONS    P'ROM    EMINENT   AMERICAN,   ENGLISH, 
GERMAN  AND  FRENCH   SCHOLARS. 

MOTICB8    OP    THBSB    LANOUAOBH    BT 

H.  W.    LONGFELLOW,  GEORGE   P.    MARSH,   SAMUEL    LAING, 

ROBERT  BUCHANAN.  SCHLEGEL,    MALLET, 

AND  OTHERS. 

BE'     '   .JU      .ND    BDITRD    WITH    A    FBW    MOTBH 


BY  R  B.  ANDERSON,  A.M. 

Of  the  ITniverHity  of  Wisconsin. 


Hi 


lai 
sti 

ge 
le( 

qu 

ca 

Ai 
ha 


WHAT  SCHOLARS  SAY 


ABOUT    THE 


Historical,  Linguistic  and  Literary  Valik 


OF    THE 


SCANDINAVIAN  LANGUAGES. 


"  Der  ilr  flagga  p;^  mast  och  den  visar  At  norr,  och 
i  norr  ilr  den  illskade  jord  ; 
jag  vill  folja  de  himmeleka  vindarnas  gAng,  jag  vill 
styra  tillbaka  mot  Nord." 

—  Teyner. 

ENGLISH    VERSION. 

"  There's  the  flag  on  the  mast,  and  it  points  to  the  North, 
And  the  North  holds  the  land  that  I  love, 
I  will  steer  back  to  northward,  the  heavenly  course 
Of  the  winds  guiding  sure  from  above." 

VERY  little  attention  has  hitherto  been  given  in 
this  country  to  the  study  of  Scandinavian  history, 
languages  and  literatures.  We  think  this  branch  of 
study  would  not  be  so  much  neglected,  if  it  were  more 
generally  known,  what  an  extensive  source  of  intel- 
lectual pleasure  it  affords  to  the  scholar  who  is  ac- 
quainted with  it.  We  hope,  therefore,  to  serve  a  good 
cause  by  calling  your  attention  to  a  few  quotations  from 
American,  English,  German  and  French  scholars,  who 
have  given  much  time  and  attention  to  the  above  named 


'■■\ 


80 


niK   SCANDINAVIAN    LAN(;rAOKS. 


ii 


subjects,  in  order  time  it  may  be  known  wbat  they,  who 
may  justly  be  considered  competent  to  judge,  say  of  their 
importance. 

I  will  add  that  I  have  not  found  a  sciiolar,  who  luis 
devoted  himself  to  this  field  of  study  and  research,  tluit 
has  not  at  the  same  time  become  an  entlmsiastic  admirer 
of  Scandinavian  and  particularly  Icelandic  history,  lan- 
guages, and  literatures. 

To  scientific  students  it  is  sufficient  to  say,  that  u 
knowledge  of  the  Scandinavian  languages  at  once  intro- 
duces them  to  several  writers  of  great  eminence  in  the 
scientific  Avorld.     I  will  briefly  mention  a  few. 

Hans  Christian  Oersted  won  for  himself  one  of 
the  greatest  names  of  the  as:e.  His  discovery,  in  i8:;i0,  of 
eleccro-magnetism  —  the  identity  of  electricity  and  mag- 
netism—  which  he  not  only  discovered,  but  demon- 
strated incontestably,  placed  him  at  once  in  the  highest 
rank  of  physical  philosophers,  and  has  led  to  all  the 
wonders  of  the  electric  telegraph.  His  great  work, " The 
Soul  of  Nature,"  in  which  he  promulgates  his  grand 
doctrine  of  the  universe,  abundantly  repays  a  careful 
perusal. 

Carl  von  Linne  (Linna'us)  is  the  polar  star  in 
botany.  He  wa3  Professor  at  the  University  of  Sweden, 
died  in  1788,  and  is  the  founder  of  the  established  system 
of  botany.  As  Linna?us  is  the  father  of  botany,  so  Ber- 
ZELius  might  be  called  the  father  of  the  present  system 
of  chemistry.  He  is  one  of  the  greatest  ornaments  of 
science.  He  devoted  his  whole  life  sedulously  to  the 
promotion  and  extension  of  his  favorite  science,  and  to 
him  is  the  world  indebted  for  the  discovery  of  many 


THE    aOANiUN'AVlAN    LANGlTAOK«. 


HI 


new  elementary  principles  iind  valuuble  elioniical  com- 
binations now  in  general  use.  He  Hllo'l  the  chair  of 
Chemistry  in  the  Universiiv  of  Stockhoin\  for  forty-two 
years,  and  died  in  1848.  Sciikele,  Mi;jiiael  Sars, 
Hansteen,  and  several  others,  are  men  who  have  dis- 
tinguit^hed  themselves  by  their  labors  in  tlie  tield  of 
science,  natural  history  and  astronomy.  Aiul  now  read 
the  following  ({notations,  wliicii  we  have  promised  to 
present. 

Mr.  North  Ludlow  Beamish  says:  "The  national 
literature  of  Iceland  holds  a  distinct  and  eminent  position 
in  the  litenvjure  of  Europe.  In  that  remote  and  cheer- 
less isle  *  *  *  *  religion  and  learning  took  up  their 
tranciuil  abode,  before  the  south  of  Europe  had  yet 
emerged  from  the  mental  darkness,  which  followed  the 
fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  There  the  unerring  memo- 
ries of  the  Skalds  and  Sagamen  were  the  depositories  of 
past  events,  which,  handed  down  from  age  to  age,  in  one 
unbroken  line  of  historical  tradition,  were  committed  to 
writing  on  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  and  now 
come  before  us  with  an  internal  evidence  of  their  truth, 
which  places  them  mnongst  the  highest  order  of  historical 
records. 

"To  investigate  the  origin  of  this  remarkable  ad- 
vancement in  mental  culture,  and  trace  the  progressive 
steps  by  which  Icelandic  literature  attained  an  eminence 
which  even  now  imparts  a  lustre  to  that  barren  land,  is 
an  object  of  interesting  and  instructive  inijuiry. 

"Among  no  other  people  of  Europe  can  the  concep- 
tion and  birth  of  historical  liteiatur'-  be  more  clearly 
traced  than  amongst  the  people  of  Iceland.  Here  it  can 
be  shown  how  memory  took  root,  j\nd  gave  birth  to 
6 


mm 


k 

1^ 

l^tk. 

■ 

iULJL. 

82 


THE    SCANDINAVIAN     LANOUAGEB. 


narrative ;  how  narrative  multiplied  and  increased  until 
it  was  committed  to  writing,  and  how  the  written  rela- 
tion eventually  became  sifted  and  arranged  in  chrono- 
logical order." 

SAAaTEL  Laing,  Esq. —  **A11  that  men  hope  for  of 
good  government  and  future  improvement  in  their 
physical  and  moral  condition  —  all  that  civilized  men 
enjoy  at  this  day  of  civil,  religious,  and  political  liberty 
—  the  l^ritish  constitution,  representative  legislature, 
the  trial  by  jury,  security  of  property,  freedom  of  mind 
and  person,  the  influence  of  public  opinion  over  the  con- 
duct of  public  aifairs,  the  Reformation,  the  liberty  of  the 
press,  the  spirit  of  the  age, —  all  that  is  or  has  been  of 
value  to  man  in  modern  times  as  a  member  of  society, 
either  in  Europe  or  in  America,  may  be  traced  to  the 
spark  left  burning  upon  our  shores  by  the  Norwegian 
barbarians. 

"  There  seem  no  good  grounds  for  the  favorite  and 
hackneyed  course  of  all  who  have  written  on  the  origin 
of  the  British  constitution  and  trial  by  jury,  who  un- 
riddle a  few  dark  phrases  of  Tacitus  concerning  the 
institutions  of  the  ancient  Germanic  tribes,  and  trace  up 
to  that  obscure  source  the  origin  of  all  political  institu- 
tions connected  with  freedom  in  modern  Europe.  In 
the  (Norwegian)  Sagas  we  find,  at  a  period  immediately 
preceding  the  first  traces  of  free  institutions  in  our 
history,  the  rude  but  very  vigorous  demonstrations  of 
similar  institutions  existing  in  great  activity  among 
those  nortliern  people,  who  were  masters  of  the  country 
uiidur  Canute  the  Great,  who  for  two  generations  before 
bis  time  had  occupied  and  inhabited  a  very  large  portion 
of  it,  and  of  wiiom  a  branch  under  William  of  Normandy 


THE    8<"ANrHNAMAN    LAN(irAGKS. 


88 


became  its  ultimate  and  permanent  con(iuerors.  It  may 
be  more  classical  to  search  in  the  pages  of  Tacitus  for 
allusions  to  the  customs  of  the  tribes  wandering  in  his 
day  through  the  forests  of  Germany,  which  may  bear 
some  faint  resemblance  to  modern  institutions,  or  to 
what  we  fancy  our  modern  institutions  may  have  been 
in  their  infancy;  but  it  seems  more  consistent  with 
correct  principles  of  historic  research  to  look  for  the 
origin  of  our  institutions  at  the  nearest,  not  at  the  most 
remote,  source:  not  at  what  existed  1,000  years  before 
in  the  woods  of  Germany,  among  people  whom  wc  must 
believe  upon  supposition  to  have  been  the  ancestors  of 
the  invaders  from  the  north  of  the  Elbe,  who  conquered 
England,  and  must  again  believe  upon  supposition,  that 
when  this  people  were  conquered  successively  by  the 
Danes  and  Normans,  they  imposed  their  own  peculiar 
institutions  upon  their  conquerors,  instead  of  receiving 
institutions  from  them;  but  at  what  actually  existed, 
when  the  first  notice  of  assemblies  for  legislative  pur- 
poses can  be  traced  in  English  history  among  the  con- 
querors of  the  country,  a  cognate  people,  long  established 
by  previous  conquests  in  a  large  portion  of  it,  who  used, 
if  not  the  same,  at  least  a  language  common  to  both, 
and  who  had  no  occasion  to  borrow,  from  the  conquered, 
institutions  which  were  flourishing  at  the  time  in  their 
mother  country  in  much  greater  vigor.  It  is  in  these 
(Norwegian)  Sagas,  not  in  Tacitus,  that  we  have  to  look 
for  the  origin  of  the  political  institutions  of  England. 
The  reference  of  all  matters  to  the  legislative  assemblies 
of  the  people  is  one  of  the  most  striking  facts  in  the 
Sagas. 

"  The  Sagas,  although  composed  by  natives  of  Iceland, 


84 


VUK    s.  „^I)IXAVIAN    [.AN(Jl  AGKS. 


■ 


il 


m 


are  properly  jVorwcf/ian  liferature.  The  events,  persons, 
manners,  language,  bel^jug  to  Norway ;  and  they  are 
productions,  which  like  the  works  of  Homer,  of  Shake- 
speare, and  of  Scott,  are  strongly  stamped  with  nationality 
of  character  and  incident. 

"A  portion  of  that  attention,  which  has  exhausted 
classic  mythology,  and  which  has  too  long  dwelt  in  the 
Pantheons  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  is  wearied  with 
fruitless  efforts  to  learn  something  more,  where,  perhaps, 
nothing  more  is  to  be  learned,  may  very  profitably,  and 
very  successfully,  be  directed  to  the  vast  field  of  Gothic 
research.  For  we  are  Goths  and  the  descendants  of 
Goths  — 

'"    The  uieii. 
Of  t'urth's  best  blood,  of  titles  manifold.' 

And  it  well  becomes  us  to  ask,  what  has  Zeus  to  do  with 
the  Brocken,  Apollo  with  Effersberg,  or  Poseidon  with 
the  Northern  Sea?  The  gods  of  our  fathers  were  neither 
Jupiter,  nor  Saturn,  nor  Mp  .ry,  but  Odin,  Brage,  or 
Eger.  If  we  marvel  at  the  pictures  of  heathen  divinities 
as  painted  by  classical  hands,  let  us  not  forget,  that  our 
ancestors  had  deities  of  their  own  —  gods  *i-s  mighty  in 
their  attributes,  as  refined  in  their  tastes,  as  heroic  in 
their  doings,  as  the  gods  worshiped  in  the  Parthenon  or 
talked  about  in  the  forum." 

M.  Mallet  says :  •'  History  has  not  recorded  the 
annals  of  a  people  who  have  occasioned  greater,  more 
sudden,  or  more  numerous  revolutions  in  Europe  than 
the  Scandinavians,  or  whose  antiquities,  at  the  same 
time,  are  so  little  known.  Had,  indeed,  their  emigra- 
tions been  only  like  those  sudden  torrents  of  which  all 
traces  and  remembrance  are  soon  effaced,  the  mdilloitiii':.. 


THE    S(  ANDINW  1A\    l.AN<.l  A(iKK. 


80 


that  lias  been  shown  to  them  woiihl  liave  been  sufti- 
ciently  justified  by  the  barbarism  they  have  been  ap- 
proached with.  But,  during  those  general  inundations, 
the  face  of  Europe  underwent  so  total  a  change,  and 
during  the  confusion  they  occasioned.,  such  different 
establishments  took  ])lace :  new  societies  were  formed, 
animated  so  entirely  by  the  new  sjiirit.  that  the  history 
of  our  own  manners  and  institutions  ought  necessarily 
to  ascend  back,  and  even  dwell  a  considerable  time  upon 
u  period  which  discovers  to  us  their  chief  origin  and 
source. 

"  But  I  ought  not  barely  to  assert  this.  Permit  me 
to  support  the  assertions  by  proof.  For  this  purpose, 
let  us  briefly  run  overall  the  different  revolutions,  which 
this  part  of  the  world  underwent,  during  the  long  course 
of  ages  which  its  history  comprehends,  in  order  to  see 
what  share  the  nations  of  the  north  have  had  in  pro- 
ducing them.  If  we  recur  back  to  the  remotest  times, 
we  observe  a  nation  issuing  step  by  step  from  the  forests 
of  Scythia,  incessantly  increasing  and  dividing  to  take 
possession  of  the  uncultivated  countries,  which  it  met 
with  in  its  progress.  Very  soon  after,  we  see  the  same 
people,  like  a  tree  full  of  vigor,  extending  long  branches 
overall  Europe;  we  see  them  also  carrying  with  them, 
wherever  thev  came,  from  the  borders  of  the  Bli;,ck  Sea 
to  the  extremities  of  Spain,  of  Sicily,  and  of  Greece,  a 
leligion  simple  and  martial  as  themselves,  a  form  of 
government  dictated  by  good  sense  and  liberty,  a  restless 
unconquered  spirit,  apt  to  tiike  fire  at  the  very  mention 
of  subjection  and  constraint,  and  a  ferocious  courage 
nourished  by  a  savage  and  vagabond  life.  While  the 
gentleness  of  the  climate  softened  imperceptibly  the  fero- 


'ri 


86 


THE    SCANDINAVIAN    LANCrUAOES. 


city  of  those  who  settled  in  the  south,  colonies  of  Egyp- 
tians and  Phenicians  mixing  with  them  upon  the  coasts 
of  Greece,  and  thence  passing  over  to  those  of  Italy, 
taught  them  at  last  to  livo  in  cities,  to  cultivate  letters, 
arts  and  commerce.  Thus  their  opinions,  their  customs 
and  genius,  were  blended  together,  and  new  states  were 
formed  upon  new  plans.  Rome,  in  the  meantime  arose, 
and  at  length  carried  all  before  her.  In  proportion  as 
she  increased  in  grandeur,  she  forgot  her  ancient  man- 
ners, and  destroyed,  among  the  nations  whom  she  over- 
powered, the  original  spirit  with  which  they  were  ani- 
mated. But  this  spirit  continued  unaltered  in  the  colder 
countries  of  Europe,  and  maintained  itself  there  like  tlie 
independency  of  the  inhabitants.  Scarce  could  fifteen 
or  sixteen  centuries  produce  there  any  change  in  that 
spirit.  There  it  renewed  itself  incessantly;  for,  during 
the  whole  of  that  long  interval,  new  adventurers  issuing 
continually  from  the  original  inexhaustible  country, 
trod  upon  the  heels  of  their  fathers  towards  the  north, 
and,  being  in  their  turn  succeeded  by  new  troops  of 
followers,  they  pushed  one  another  forward  like  the 
waves  of  the  sea.  The  northern  countries,  thus  over- 
stocked, and  unable  any  longer  to  contain  such  restless 
inhabitants,  equally  greedy  of  glory  and  plunder,  dis- 
charged at  length  upon  the  Roman  Empire  the  weight 
that  oppressed  them.  The  barriers  of  the  Empire,  ill 
defended  by  a  people  whom  prosperity  had  enervated, 
were  borne  down  on  all  sides  by  torrents  of  victorious 
armies.  We  then  see  the  conquerors  introducing,  among 
tlie  nations  they  vanquished,  viz.  into  the  very  bosom 
of  slavery  and  sloth,  that  spirit  of  independence  and 
equality,  that  elevation  of  soul,  that  taste  for  rural  and 


THE    8(1  ANDIN AVIAN    LANGUAOES. 


87 


military  life,  which  both  the  one  and  the  other  had 
originally  -derived  from  the  same  common  source,  but 
which  were  then  among  the  Romans  breathing  their  last. 
Dispositions  and  principles  so  opposite,  struggled  long 
with  forces  sufficiently  equal,  but  they  united  in  the  end, 
they  coalesced  together,  and  from  their  coalition  sprung 
those  principles  and  that  spirit  which  governed  after- 
wards almost  all  the  states  of  Europe,  and  which,  not- 
withstanding the  differences  of  climate,  of  religion,  and 
particular  accidents,  do  visibly  reign  in  them,  and  retain, 
to  this  day,  more  or  less,  the  traces  of  their  first  common 


origin. 


"  It  is  easy  to  see,  from  this  short  sketch,  liow  greatly 
the  nations  of  the  earth  have  infiuenced  the  different 
fates  of  Europe;  and  if  it  be  worth  while  to  trace  its 
revolutions  to  their  causes;  if  the  illustration  of  its 
institutions,  of  its  police,  of  its  customs,  of  its  manners, 
of  its  laws,  be  a  subject  of  useful  and  interesting  inquiry  ; 
it  must  be  allowed,  that  the  antiquities  of  the  north, 
that  is  to  say,  everything  which  tends  to  make  us  ac- 
quainted with  its  ancient  inhabitants,  merits  a  share  in 
the  attention  of  thinking  men.  But  to  render  this 
obvious  by  a  particular  example:  is  it  not  well  known 
that  the  most  flourishing  and  celebrated  states  of  Europe 
owe  originally  to  the  northern  nations  whatever  liberty 
they  now  enjoy,  either  in  their  constitution  or  in  the 
spirit  of  their  government  ?  For  although  the  Gothic 
form  of  government  has  been  almost  everywhere  altered 
or  abolished,  have  we  not  retained,  in  most  things,  the 
opinions,  the  customs,  the  manners  which  that  govern- 
ment had  a  tendency  to  produce?  Is  not  this,  in  fact, 
the  principal  source  of  that  courage,  of  that  aversion  to 


"!i 


m 


.i^l 


88 


TIMO    SCANIUNAVIAN     l.ANiif AliKIS. 


slavery,  of  that  empire  of  lionor  which  characterized  in 
general  the  European  n.itions ;  and  of  that  moderation, 
of  that  easiness  of  access,  and  peculiar  attention  to  the 
rights  of  humanity,  which  so  happily  distinguish  our 
sovereigns  from  the  inaccessible  and  superb  tyrants  of 
Asia  ?  The  immense  extent  of  the  Romxin  Empire  had 
rendered  its  constitution  so  despotic  and  military,  many 
of  its  emperors  were  such  ferocious  monsters,  its  senate 
was  become  so  mean-spirited  and  vile,  that  all  elevation 
of  sentiment,  everything  that  was  noble  and  manly, 
seems  to  have  been  forever  vanished  from  their  hearts 
and  minds;  insomuch  that  if  all  Europe  had  received 
the  yoke  of  Rome  in  this  her  state  of  debasement,  tliis 
fine  part  of  the  world  reduced  to  the  inglorious  con- 
dition of  the  rest  could  not  have  avoided  falling  into 
that  kind  of  barbarity,  which  is  of  all  others  the  most 
incurable;  as,  by  making  as  many  slaves  as  there  are 
men,  it  degrades  them  so  low  as  not  to  leave  them  even 
a  thought  or  desire  of  bettering  their  condition.  But 
nature  has  long  prepared  a  remedy  for  such  great  evils, 
in  that  unsubmitting,  unconquerable  spirit,  with  whic^h 
she  has  inspired  the  people  of  the  north ;  and  thus  slio 
made  amends  to  the  human  race  for  all  the  calamities 
which,  in  other  respects,  the  inroads  of  these  nations 
and  the  overthrow  of  tlie  Rf)man  Emjiire  produced. 

"  The  great  ])rerogative  of  Scandinavia  (says  the  ad- 
mirable author  of  the  Spirit  of  Laws*),  and  what  ought 
to  recommend  its  inhabitants  beyond  every  people  upon 
earth,  is,  that  they  afforded  the  great  resource  to  the 
liberty  of  i^urope,  that  is,  to  almost  all  the  liberty  that 
is  among  men.     Tlie  Goth  Jornande,  adds  he,  calls  the 


*  Biiroii  lie  Mnnti'wiuh'u  (L'Eeprit  de  Lois). 


THE    l^rANI>INAVI  AN    LANraAirKB. 


89 


north  of  Europe  the  forge  of  muiikiiul.  I  should  ratlier 
call  it  the  forge  of  those  instrument.s  which  broke  the 
fetters  manufactured  in  tlie  south.  It  was  there  those 
valiant  nations  were  bred  who  left  their  native  climes  to 
destroy  tyrants  and  slaves,  and  so  to  teach  men  that 
nature  having  made  them  equal,  no  reason  could  be 
assigned  for  their  becoming  dependent  but  their  mutual 
happiness." 

H.  W.  Longfellow  is  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  the 
Scandinavian  languages.  Of  the  Icelandic  he  says: 
*'The  Icelandic  is  as  remarkable  as  the  Anglo-Sax()n  fo" 
its  abruptness,  its  obscurity  and  the  boldness  of  its 
metaphors.  Poets  are  called  Songsmiths;  —  poetry,  tlie 
Language  of  the  Gods:  —  gold,  tlie  Daylight  of  Dwarfs; 
—  the  heavens,  the  Scull  of  Ymer:  —  the  rainbow,  the 
Bridge  of  the  Gods ;  —  a  battle,  a  Bath  of  Blood,  the  Hail 
of  Odin,  the  Meeting  of  Shields  ;  —  the  tongue,  the  Sword 
of  Words;  —  river,  the  Sweat  of  Earth,  the  Blood  of  the 
Valleys;  —  arrows,  the  Daughters  of  Misfortune,  the 
Hailstones  of  Helmets ;  —  the  earth,  the  Vessel  that 
floats  on  the  Ages;  —  the  sea,  the  Field  of  Pirates:  — 
a  ship,  the  Skate  of  Pirates,  the  Horse  of  the  Waves. 
The  ancient  Skald  (Bard)  smote  the  strings  of  his  harp 
with  as  bold  a  band  as  the  Birsscrk  smotv  his  foe.  When 
heroes  fell  in  battle  he  sang  to  them  in  his  Drapa,  or 
death-song,  that  they  had  gone  to  drink  *  divine  mead 
in  the  secure  and  tranquil  palaces  of  the  gods'  in  that 
Valhalla  upon  whose  walls  stood  the  watchman  Heiin- 
dal,  whose  ear  was  so  acute  that  he  could  hear  the  gj-uss 
grow  in  the  meadows  of  earth,  and  the  wool  on  the 
backs  of  sheep.  He  lived  in  a  credulous  age ;  in  the 
dim  twilight  of  the  past.     He  was 


DO  T!IK    SCANDIN AVIAN    LANGUAai<)K. 

"  'Tho  skylark  in  tho  dawu  of  years, 
The  poet  of  the  morn.' 

In  the  vast  solitudes  around  him,  the  heart  of  Nature 
beat  against  his  own.  From  the  midnight  gloom  of 
groves,  the  deep-voiced  pines  answered  the  deeper- 
voiced  and  neighboring  sea.  To  his  ear,  these  were  not 
the  voices  of  dead,  but  living  things.  Demons  rode  the 
ocean  like  a  weary  steed,  and  the  gigantic  pines  flapped 
their  sounding  wings  to  smite  the  spirit  of  the  storm. 

"  Still  wilder  and  fiercer  were  these  influences  of 
Nature  in  desolate  Iceland,  than  on  the  mainland  of 
Scandinavia.  Fields  of  lava,  icebergs,  geysers,  and  vol- 
canoes were  familiar  sights.  When  the  long  winter 
came,  and  the  snowy  Heckla  roared  through  the  sunless 
air,  and  the  flames  of  the  Northern  Aurora  flashed  along 
the  sky,  like  phantoms  from  Valhalla,  the  soul  of  the 
poet  was  filled  with  images  of  terror  and  dismay.  He 
bewailed  the  death  of  Baldur,  the  sun ;  and  saw  in  each 
eclipse  the  horrid  form  of  the  wolf,  Managamer,  who 
swallowed  the  moon  and  stained  the  sky  with  blood." 

Professor  W.  Fiske,  of  Cornell  University,  who  is 
undoubtedly  the  most  learned  northern  scholar  in  this 
country,  who  has  spent  several  years  in  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  and  who  is  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Iceland 
and  its  Sagas,  has  sent  me  the  following  lines  for  inser- 
tion in  this  appendix : 

"  It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  on  the  value  of  Icelandic 
to  those  who  desire  to  investigate  the  early  history  of  the 
Teutonic  race.    The  religious  belief  of  our  remote  an- 
cestors, and  very  many  of  their  primitive  legal  and  social 
"customs,  some  of  which  still  influence  the  daily  life  of 


THfc,    .S<  .\NI>INAVrAN    I  \N0UA<;KS, 


91 


the  people,  find  their  clearest  and  often  their  only  eluci- 
dation in  the  so-called  Eddie  and  Scaldin  laya,  and  in  the 
Sagas.  The  samf  writings  form  the  sole  sources  of 
Scandinavian  liistory  before  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
they  not  infrequently  shed  a  welcome  ray  on  the  obscure 
annals  of  the  Britisii  Islands,  and  of  several  eontinontal 
nations.  They  furnish,  moreover,  an  almost  un  'jue  ex- 
ample of  a  modern  literature  whicli  is  completely  indige- 
nous. The  old  Icelandic  literature,  which  MoBius  truly 
characterises  as  'cin  Phiinomen  vom  Standpunktc  der 
allgomeinen  Cultur  und  Litcraturgeschichte,'  and  be- 
side which  the  literatures  of  all  the  other  early  '^'eutonic 
dialects  —  Gotiiic,  Old  High  (ierman,  Saxon,  Frisian, 
and  Anglo-Saxon  —  are  as  a  drop  to  a  bucket  of  water, 
developed  itself  out  of  the  actual  lifr  of  the  i>eople  under 
little  or  no  extraneous  influence.  In  this  respect  it  de- 
serves the  careful  siudy  of  every  student  of  letters.  For 
the  English-speaking  races  especially  there  is  nowhere, 
so  near  home,  a  tield  promi>;ing  to  the  scholar  so  rich  a 
harvest.  The  few  translations,  or  attempted  transla- 
tions, which  are  to  be  found  in  English,  give  merely 
a  faint  idea  of  the  treasures  of  anti(iue  wisdom  and 
sublime  poetry  which  exist  in  the  Eddie  lays,  or  of  the 
quaint  simplicity,  dramatic  action,  and  striking  realism 
which  characterize  the  historical  Sagas.  Nor  is  the 
modern  literature  of  the  language,  with  its  rich  and 
abundant  stores  of  folk-lore,  unworthy  of  regard." 

Benjamin  Lossing  savs:  ''It  is  back  to  the  Nor- 
wegian  Vikings  we  must  look  for  the  hardiest  elements 
of  progress  in  the  United  States." 


^. 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


4p 


A 


1.0 


I.I 


1^128     |2.5 
*iA  Uik   12.2 


u 

Wuu 


HJi& 


1.25  ||  1.4      1.6 

^ 

6"     

► 

<% 


» 


^:.^*' 


V 


/^ 


Sciences 
Coiporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREir 

WEBSTIR.N.Y.  149M 

(716)872-4503 


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;\ 


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.<;' 


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u. 


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^ 


i 


Jill 


92 


THE    KCANDINAVIAN    I.ANtil; AGES. 


B.  F.  De  Costa. — "  Let  iis  remember  that  in  vindi- 
cating the  Northmen  we  honor  those  who  not  only  give  us 
the  first  knowledge  possessed  of  the  American  continent^, 
but  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  much  besides  that  we 
esteem  valuable.  I'or  we  fable  in  a  great  measure  when 
we  speak  of  our  Saxon  inheritance ;  it  is  rather  from 
the  Northmen  that  v/e  have  derived  our  vital  energy, 
our  freedom  of  thought,  and,  in  a  measure  that  we  do  not 
yet  suspect,  our  strength  of  speech.  Yet,  happily,  the 
people  are  fast  becoming  conscious  of  their  indel)ted- 
ness ;  so  that  it  is  to  be  hoped,  that  the  time  is  not  far 
distant  when  the  Northmen  may  be  recognized  in  their 
right,  social,  political  and  literary  characters,  and  at  the 
same  time,  as  navigators,  assume  their  true  position  in 
the  Pre-Columbian  Discovery  of  America. 

"The  twelfth  centary  was  an  era  of  great  literary 
activity  in  Iceland,  and  the  century  following  showed 
the  same  zeal.  Finally  Iceland  possessed  a  body  of  prose 
literature  superior  in  quantity  and  value  to  that  of  any 
other  modern  nation  of  its  time.  Indeed  the  natives  of 
Europe  at  this  period  had  no  prose  literature  in  any 
modern  language  spoken  by  the  people. 

"  Yet  while  other  nations  were  without  a  literature, 
the  intellect  of  Iceland  was  in  active  exercise,  and  works 
were  produced  like  the  Eddas  and  Heimskringla, 
works  which,  being  inspired  by  a  lofty  genius,  will  rank 
with  the  writings  of  Homer  and  Herodotus  while  time 
itself  endures." 

Says  Sir  Edmund  Head,  in  regard  to  the  Norwegian 
literature  of  the  ttvelfth  century:  "No  doubt  there  were 
translations  in  Anglo-Saxon  from  the  Latin,  by  Alfred, 
of  an  earlier  date,  but  there  was  in  truth  no  vernacular 


I 


THK    SOANDFXAVIAN    LAN^aiAfJErt. 


93 


in  vindi- 
ilygive  us 
}ontinentj 
J8  that  we 

lire  when 
;her  from 
il  energy, 
we  do  not 
ppily,  the 
indebted- 
is  not  far 
d  in  tlieir 
md  at  tlie 
osition  in 

it  literary 
ig  sliowed 
[y  of  prose 
lat  of  any 
natives  of 
re  in  any 

literature, 
md  works 

KRINGLA, 

will  rank 
vhile  time 

forwegian 
here  were 
)y  Alfred, 
ernacuhir 


literature.  I  cannot  name,''  he  says,  "any  work  in 
high  or  low  German  prose,  which  can  be  carried  back  to 
this  period.  In  France,  prose  writing  cannot  be  said  to 
have  begun  before  the  time  of  Villehardouin  (1204)  and 
Joinville  (1302) ;  Castilian  prose  certainly  did  not  begin 
before  the  time  of  Alfonso  X  (1253) ;  Don  Juan  Manvel, 
the  author  of  Conde  Lucanor,  was  not  born  till  1283. 
The  Cronica  General  de  Espana  was  not  composed  till 
at  least  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  About 
the  same  time  the  language  of  Italy  was  acquiring  that 
softness  and  strength,  which  were  destined  to  appear  so 
conspicuously  in  the  prose  of  Boccaccio  and  the  writers 
of  the  next  century. 

"  Of  course  there  was  more  or  less  poetry,  yet  poetry 
is  something  that  is  early  developed  among  the  rudest 
nations,  while  goodi  prose  tells  that  a  people  have  become 
highly  advanced  in  mental  culture.'* 

William  and  Mary  Howitt. —  "There  is  nothing 
besides  the  Bible,  which  sits  in  a  divine  tranquility  of 
unapproachable  nobility,  like  a  King  of  Kings  amongst 
all  other  books,  and  the  poem  of  Ho  aer  itself,  which 
can  compare  in  all  the  elements  of  greatness  with  the 
Edda.  There  is  a  loftiness  of  stature,  and  a  growth  of 
muscle  about  it  which  no  poets  of  the  same  race  have 
ever  since  reached.  The  obscurity  which  hangs  ever 
some  parts  of  it,  like  the  deep  shadows  crouching  mid 
the  ruins  of  the  past,  is  probably  the  result  of  delapida- 
tious;  but  amid  this  stand  forth  the  boldest  masses  of 
intellectual  masonry.  We  are  astonished  at  the  wisdom 
which  is  shaped  into  maxims,  and  at  the  tempestuous 
strength  of  passions  to  which  all  modern  emotions  appear 
puny  and  constrained.    Amid  the  bright  sunlight  of  a 


,;  1 


II ' 


94 


TJIE    SCANDINAVIAN    LANGUAGES. 


•i^;l 


far-off  time,  surrounded  by  the  densest  shadows  of  for- 
gotten ages,  we  come  at  once  into  the  midst  of  gods 
and  heroes,  goddesses  and  fair  women,  giants  and  dwarfs, 
moving  about  in  a  world  of  wonderful  construction, 
unlike  any  other  worlds  or  creations  which  God  has 
founded  or  man  has  imagined,  but  still  beautiful  beyond 
conception. 

"The  Icelandic  poem?  have  no  parallel  in  all  the 
treasures  of  ancient  literature.  They  are  the  expressions 
of  the  souls  of  poets  existing  in  the  primeval  and  un- 
effeminated  earth.  They  are  limnings  of  men  and  women 
of  godlike  beauty  and  endowments,  full  of  the  vigor  of 
simple  but  impetuous  natures.  There  are  gigantic  pro- 
portions about  them.  There  are  great  and  overwhelming 
tragedies  in  them,  to  which  those  of  Greece  only  present 
any  parallels. 

"  The  Edda  is  a  structure  of  that  grandeur  and  im- 
portance, that  it  deserves  to  be  far  better  known  to  us 
generally,  than  it  is.  The  spirit  in  it  is  sublime  and 
colossal." 

Plihy  Miles.  —  "  The  literary  history  of  Iceland  in 
the  early  ages  of  the  Republic,  is  of  a  most  interesting 
character.  When  we  consider  the  limited  population  of 
the  country,  and  the  many  disadvantages  under  which 
they  labored,  tJieir  literature  is  the  most  remarkable  on 
record.  The  old  Icelanders,  from  the  tenth  to  the  six- 
teenth century,  through  a  period  of  the  history  of  the 
world  when  little  intellectual  light  beamed  from  the 
surrounding  nations,  were  as  devoted  and  ardent  workers 
in  the  fields  of  history  and  poetry  as  any  community  in 
the  world  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances. 
Springing  from  the  old  Norse  or  Norwegian  stock,  they 


THK    SCANDINAVIAN    LANGUAGEK. 


95 


vs  of  for- 
t  of  gods 
id  dwarfs, 
struction, 
God  has 
il  beyond 

n  all  the 
Impressions 
I  and  un- 
id  women 
I  vigor  of 
mtic  pro- 
whelming 
ly  present 

r  and  im- 
)wn  to  ns 
)lime  and 

'celand  in 
iteresting 
alation  of 
ler  which 
rkahle  on 
»  the  six- 
ry  of  the 
from  the 
t  workers 
nunity  in 
Qistances. 
ock,  they 


carried  the  language  and  habits  of  their  ancestors  with 
them  to  their  liighland  home.  Though  a  very  larf/e 
number  of  our  English  words  are  derived  direct  from 
the  Icelandic,  yet  the  most  learned  and  indefatigable  of 
our  lexicographers,  both  in  England  and  America,  have 
acknowledged  their  ignorance  of  this  language. 

"  The  Eddas  abound  in  mythological  machinery  to 
an  extent  quite  equal  to  tlie  writings  of  Homer  and 
Virgil." 

The  learned  German  writer  Schlegel,  in  his  "Es- 
thetics and  Miscellaneous  Works,"  says :  "  If  any  monu- 
ment of  the  primitive  northern  world  deserves  a  place 
amongst  the  earlier  remains  of  the  south,  the  Icelandic 
Edda  must  be  deemed  worthy  of  that  distinction.  The 
spiritual  veneration  for  Nature,  to  which  the  sensual 
Greek  was  an  entire  stranger,  gushes  forth  in  the  mys- 
terious language  and  prophetic  traditions  of  the  North- 
ern Edda  with  a  full  tide  of  enfchusiasm  and  inspiration 
sufficient  to  endure  for  centuries,  and  to  supply  a  whole 
race  of  future  bards  and  poets  v»  ith  a  precious  and  ani- 
mating elixir.  The  vivid  delineations,  the  rich  glowing 
abundance  and  animation  of  the  Homeric  pictures  of 
the  world,  are  not  more  decidedly  superior  to  the  misty 
scenes  and  shadowy  forms  of  Ossian,  than  the  Northern 
Edda  is  in  its  sublimity  to  the  works  of  Hesiod." 

Prof.  Dr.  Dietrich  asserts  "  that  the  Scandinavian 
literature  is  extraordinarily  rich  in  all  kinds  of  writings." 

Hon.  George  P.  Marsh.  —  "It  must  suffice  to  re- 
mark that,  in  the  opinion  of  those  most  competent  to 
judge,  the  Icelandic  literature  has  never  been  surpassed. 


ii 

i 


96 


THE    S()ANl)lNAVIA>r    LANGUAGES, 


if  equaled,  in  all  that  gives  valut?  to  that  portion  of  his- 
tory v/hich  consists  of  spirited  delineations  of  character 
and  faithful  and  lively  pictures  of  events  among  nations 
in  a  rude  state  of  society. 

"  That  the  study  of  the  Old-Northern  tongue  may 
have  an  important  bearing  on  English  grammar  and 
etymology,  will  be  obvious,  when  it  is  known  that  the 
Icelandic  is  most  closely  allied  to  the  Anglo-Saxon,  of 
which  so  few  monuments  are  extant;  and  a  slight 
examination  of  its  structure  and  remarkable  syntactical 
character  will  satisfy  the  reader  that  it  may  well  deserve 
the  atteiition  of  the  philologist." 


The  excellent  writer,  Charles  L.  Brace,  in  speak- 
ing of  Iceland,  says :  ''  The  Congress,  or  '  Althing,'  of 
the  Icelanders,  had  many  of  the  best  political  features 
which  have  distinguished  parliamentary  government  in 
all  branches  of  the  Teutonic  race  since.  Every  free- 
holder voted  in  it,  and  its  decisions  governed  all  inferior 
courts.  It  tried  the  lesser  magistrates,  and  chose  the 
presiding  officers  of  the  colony. 

"  To  this  remote  island  (Iceland)  came,  too,  that  re- 
markable profession,  who  were  at  once  the  poets,  his- 
torians, genealogists  and  moralists  o^  the  Norse  race, 
the  Scalds.  These  men,  before  writing  was  much  in 
use,  handed  down  by  memory,  in  familiar  and  often 
alliterative  poetry,  the  names  and  deeds  of  the  brave 
Norsemen,  their  victories  on  every  coast  of  Europe, 
their  histories  and  passions,  and  wild  deaths,  their 
family  ties,  and  the  boundaries  of  their  possessions, 
their  adventures  and  voyages,  and  even  their  law  and 
their  mythology.     In  fact,  all  that  history  and  legal 


THE   8CANt)INAVIAN    LANGUAGES. 


97 


on  of  liis- 

charactei- 

ig  nations 

ngue  may 
nmar  and 
1  that  the 
-Saxon,  of 
a  slight 
syntactical 
ell  deserve 


in  speak- 
Ithing/  of 
il  features 
rnment  in 
]very  free- 
ill  inferior 
chose  the 

0,  that  re- 
poets,  his- 
I^orse  race, 
much  in 
and  often 
the  brave 
f  Europe, 
tths,  their 
ossessions, 
r  law  and 
and  legal 


documents,  and  genealogical  records  and  poetry  transmit 
now,  was  handed  down  by  these  bards  of  the  Norsemen. 
Iceland  became  their  peculiar  center  and  home.  Here, 
in  bold  and  vivid  language,  they  recorded  in  works, 
which  posterity  will  never  let  die,  the  achievements  of 
the  Vikings,  the  conquest  of  almost  every  people  in  Europe 
by  these  vigoi'ous  jnrates;  their  wild  ventures,  their 
contempt  of  pain  and  death,  their  absolute  joy  in 
danger,  combat  and  difficulty.  In  these,  the  oldest  re- 
cords of  our  (i.  e.  the  Americans')  forefathers,  will  be 
found  even  among  these  wild  rovers  the  respect  for  law 
which  has  characterized  every  branch  of  the  Teutonic 
race  since;  here,  and  not  in  the  Stviss  cantons,  is  the 
beginning  of  Parliament  and  Congress ;  here,  and  not 
with  the  Anglo-Saxons,  is  thefotmdatiori  of  trial  by  jury; 
and  here,  among  their  most  ungoverned  wassail,  is  that 
high  reverence  for  woman,  which  has  again  come  forth  by 
inheritance  among  the  Anglo- Norse  Americans.  The 
ancestors  (at  least  morally)  of  Raleigh  and  Nelson,  and 
Kane  and  Farragut,  appear  in  these  records,  among 
these  sea-rovers,  whose  passion  was  danger  Rr?d  venture 
on  the  waters.  Here,  too,  among  such  men  as  the 
'Raven  Floki,'  is  the  prototype  of  those  American 
pioneers  who  follow  the  wild  birds  into  pathless  wilder- 
nesses to  found  new  Republics.  And  it  is  the  Norse 
"udal"  property,  not  the  European  feudal  property, 
ivhich  is  the  model  for  the  American  descendants  of  the 
ancient  Norsemen. 

"  In  these  Icelandic  Sagas,  too,  is  portrayed  the  deep 
moral  sentiment  which  characterizes  the  most  ancient 
mythology  of  the  Teutonic  races.  Here  we  have  no 
dissolute   Pantheon,  with   gods    reveling   eternally  in 

7 


Pin 


m 


Kr-i 


11;      .:    m 


III 

lit.:,  yjg 


"A 


98 


THK   SCANDINAVIAN   LANGtJAGBS. 


earthly  vices,  and  the  evils  and  wrongs  of  humanity 
continued  forever.  Even  the  ghosts  of  the  Northmen 
have  the  muscle  of  the  race;  they  rre  no  pale  shadows 
flitting  through  the  Orcus.  The  de.vd  fight  and  eat  with 
the  vigor  of  the  living.  But  there  comes  a  dread  time, 
when  destiny  overtakes  all,  both  human  and  divine 
beings,  and  the  universe  with  its  evil  and  wrong  must 
perish  (Ragnarokr).  Yet  even  the  crack  of  doom  finds 
not  the  Norsemen  timid  or  fearing.  Gods  and  men  die 
in  the  heat  of  the  conflict;  and  there  survives  alone, 
Baldur,  the  "God  of  Love,"  who  shall  create  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth. 

"  It  is  from  Iceland  that  we  get  the  wonderful  poetic 
and  mythologic  collections  of  the  'Elder'  and  'Younger 
Edda.'  In  this  remote  island  the  original  Norse  lan- 
guage was  preserved  more  purely  than  it  was  in  Norway 
or  Denmark,  and  the  Icelandic  literature  shed  a  flood  of 
light  over  a  dark  and  barbarous  age.  Even  now  the 
modern  Icelanders  can  read  or  repeat  their  most  ancient 
Sagas  with  but  little  change  of  dialect. 

"But  to  an  American,  one  of  the  most  interesting 
gifts  of  Iceland  to  the  world  is  the  record  of  the  dis- 
covery of  Northern  America  by  Icelandic  rovers  (?)  near 
the  year  1000. 

"  We  think  few  scholars  can  carefully  read  these  Sagas, 
and  the  accompanying  in  regard  to  Greenland,  without 
a  conviction  that  the  Icelandic  and  Norwegian  Vikings 
did  at  that  early  period  discover  and  land  on  the  coast 
of  our  Eastern  States.  *  *  *  *  rphe  shortest 
winter  day  is  stated  with  such  precision  as  to  fix  the 
latitude  near  the  coast  of  Massachusetts  aud  Ehode 
Island.  *  *  *  *  Iceland,  then,  has  the  honor 
of  having  discovered  America. 


THE   SCANDINAVIAN    LANGUAGES. 


99 


humanity 
N^orthmen 
shadows 
d  eat  with 
read  time, 
lid  divine 
•ong  must 
oom  finds 
d  men  die 
ves  alone, 
ie  a  new 

ful  poetic 
*  Younger 
rorse  lan- 
11  Norway 
a  flood  of 
now  the 
st  ancient 

iteresting 
f  the  dis- 
s  (?)  near 

ese  Sagas, 
:,  without 
I  Vikings 
the  coast 
shortest 
0  fix  the 
d  Rhode 
he  honor 


"That  volcano-raised  island,  with  its  mountains  of 
ice  and  valleys  of  lava  and  ashes,  has  played  no  mean 
part  in  the  world's  history." — Christian  Uniun,  July  '5, 
1874. 

The  famous  George  Stephens,  in  his  elaborate  work 
on  "Runic  Monuments,"  having  discussed  the  impor- 
tance of  studying  the  Scandinavian  languages  in  order 
that  many  of  our  fine  old  roots  may  again  creep  into 
circulation,  says:  " Let  us  (the  F  jglish)  study  the  Scan- 
dinavian languages,  and  ennoble  and  restore  our  mother 
tongue.  Let  the  Scandinavians  study  Old  English  as 
well  as  their  own  ancient  records,  give  up  mere  provincial 
v:°W8,  and  melt  their  various  dialects  into  one  shining, 
rich,  sweet  and  manly  speech,  as  we  have  done  in  Eng- 
land. Their  High  Northern  shall  then  live  forever,  the 
home  language  of  eight  millions  of  hardy  freemen,  our 
brothers  in  the  east  sea,  our  Warings  and  Guardsmen 
against  the  grasping  clutches  of  the  modern  Hun  and 
the  modern  Vandal.  The  time  may  come  when  the 
kingdom  of  Canute  may  be  restored  in  a  nobler  shape, 
when  the  bands  of  Sea-kings  shall  rally  round  one 
Northern  Union  standard,  when  one  scepter  shall  sway 
the  seas  and  coasts  of  our  forefathers  from  the  Thames 
to  the  North  Cape,  from  Finland  to  the  Eider. 

"We  have  watered  our  mother  tongue  long  enough 
with  bastard  Latin ;  let  us  now  brace  and  steel  it  with 
the  life-water  of  our  own  sweet  and  soft  and  rich  and 
shining  and  clear  ringing  and  manly  and  world-ranging, 
ever  dearest  English  ! " 

In  his  preface  to  his  Icelandic  grammar,  Dr.  G.  W. 
Dasent  says :    "  Putting  aside  the  study  of  Old  Norse 


,1' .  *  f-1 


100 


THE   SCANDINAVIAN    LANGUAGES. 


T  li 


for  the  sake  of  its  magnificent  literature,  and  consider- 
ing it  merely  as  an  accessory  help  for  the  English  student, 
we  shall  find  it  of  immense  advantage,  not  only  in  trac- 
ing the  rise  of  words  and  idioms,  but  still  more  in  clear- 
ing up  many  dark  points  in  our  early  history;  in  fact, 
so  highly  do  I  value  it  in  this  respect,  that  I  cannot 
imagine  it  possible  to  write  a  satisfactory  history  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  period  without  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  Old  Norse  Literature." 

Dr.  Dasent,  in  his  introduction  to  Cleasby's  and 
Vigfusson's  Icelandic  Dictionary,  spys  of  Iceland :  "  No 
other  country  in  Europe  possesses  an  ancient  vernacular 
to  be  compared  with  this."  And  again :  "  Whether  in 
a  literary  or  in  a  philological  point  of  view,  no  literature 
in  Europe  in  the  middle  ages  can  compete  in  interest 
with  that  of  Iceland.  It  is  not  certainly  i?i  forma  pau- 
peris that  she  appears  at  the  tribunal  of  learning."  In 
another  place  he  remarks:  "In  it  (the  Dictionary)  the 
English  student  now  possesses  a  key  to  that  rich  store  of 
knowledge  which  the  early  literature  of  Iceland  possesses. 
He  may  read  the  Eddas  and  Sagas,  which  contain  sources 
of  delight  and  treasures  of  learning  such  as  no  other 
language  but  that  of  Iceland  possesses." 

The  distinguisiied  German  scholar,  EttmVller,  in 
comparing  the  literature  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  with  that 
of  the  Icelanders,  says :  "  Neither  the  Goths,  nor  the 
Germans,  nor  the  French  can  be  compared  with  the 
Anglo-Saxons  in  the  cultivation  of  letters.  By  the  Sca7i- 
dinavians  alone,  they  are  not  only  equaled,  but  also  sur- 
passed in  literature."  And  again :  "If  the  Scandinavians 
excel  in  lyric  poetry,  the  Anglo-Saxons  can  boast  of  their 


THE   SCANDINAVIAN    LANCJLAGKS. 


101 


1  consider- 
sh  student, 
ily  in  trac- 
re  in  clear- 
j;  in  fact, 
t  I  cannot 
tory  of  tlie 
owledge  of 

asby's  and 
.nd :  "  No 
vernacular 
iV^hether  in 
)  literature 
in  interest 
orma  pau- 


nmg. 


>j 


In 

ionary)  the 
:ch  store  of 
i  possesses. 
lin  sources 
3  no  other 


tLLER,    in 

with  that 

s,  nor  the 

with  the 

the  Sca7i- 

t  also  sur- 

idinavians 

,st  of  their 


epic  poetry.  If  the  famous  island  in  the  remote  north- 
ern sea  applied  itself  with  distinguished  honor  to  his- 
torical studies,  the  isle  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  is  es])ccially 
entitled  to  praise  from  the  fact  that  it  produced  orators, 
who,  considering  the  time  in  which  they  lived,  were  de- 
cidedly excellent." 

Max  Mt)LLER,  in  his  "Science  of  Language,"  says: 
"There  is  a  third  stream  of  Teutonic  speech,  which  it 
would  be  impossible  to  place  in  any  but  a  co-ordinate 
position  with  regard  to  Gothic,  Low  and  High  German. 
This  is  the  Scandinavian  branch." 

In  Wheaton's  "History  of  the  Northmen,"  we  find 
the  following  passages :  "  The  Icelanders  cherished  and 
cultivated  the  language  and  literature  of  their  ancestors 
with  remarkable  success.  *  *  *  *  jjj  Iceland  an 
independent  literature  grew  up,  flourished,  and  was 
brought  to  a  certain  degree  of  perfection  before  the  re- 
vival of  learning  in  the  south  of  Europe." 

Robert  Buchanan,  the  eminent  English  writer,  in 
reviewing  the  modern  Scandinavian  literature,  says: 
"  While  German  literature  darkens  under  the  malignant 
star  of  Deutschthums  while  French  art,  sickening  of  its 
long  disease,  crawls  like  a  leper  through  the  light  and 
wholesome  world,  while  all  over  the  European  continent 
one  wan  influence  or  another  asserts  its  despair-engen- 
dering sway  over  books  and  men,  whither  shall  a  be- 
wildered student  fly  for  one  deep  breath  of  pure  air  and 
wholesome  ozone  ?  Goethe  and  Heine  have  sung  their 
best  —  and  worst;  Alfred  de  Musset  is  dead,  and  Victor 
Hugo  is  turned  politician.   Grillparzer  is  still  a  mystery. 


T 


Mil 


102 


THE    8CANP1NAVIAN   LANaUAOES. 


thanks  partly  to  the  darkening  medium  of  Carlylo's 
hostile  criticism.  From  the  ashes  of  Teutonic  tran- 
scendentalism rises  Wagner  like  a  Pbo3nix, —  a  bird  too 
uncommon  for  ordinary  comprehension,  but  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  an  anomaly  at  best.  One  tires  of 
anomalies,  one  sickens  of  politics,  one  shudders  at  the 
petticoat  literature  first  created  at  Weimar ;  and  looking 
east  and  west,  ranging  with  a  true  invalid's  hunger  the 
literary  horizon,  one  searches  for  something  more  natu- 
ral, for  some  form  of  indigenous  and  unadorned  love- 
liness, wherewith  to  fleet  the  time  pleasantly,  as  they 
did  in  the  golden  world. 

"That  something  may  be  found  without  traveling 
very  far.  Turn  northward,  in  the  footsteps  of  Teufels- 
c^  ochk,  traversing  the  great  valleys  of  Scandinavia,  and 
not  halting  until,  like  the  philosopher,  you  look  upon 
'that  slowly  heaving  Polar  Ocean,  over  which  in  the 
utmost  north  the  great  sun  hangs  low.'  Quieu  and  peace- 
ful lies  "Norway  yet  as  in  the  world's  morning.  The 
flocks  of  summer  tourists  alight  upon  her  shores,  and 
scatter  themselves  to  their  numberless  stations,  without 
disturbing  the  peaceful  serenity  of  her  social  life.  *  *  * 
The  government  is  a  virtual  democracy,  such  as  would 
gladden  the  heart  of  Gambetta,  the  Swedish  monarch's 
rule  over  Norway  being  merely  titular.  There  are  no 
hereditary  nobles.  There  is  no  'gag'  on  the  press. 
Science  and  poetry  alike  flourish  on  this  free  soil.  The 
science  is  grand  as  Nature  herself,  cosmic  as  well  as 
microscopic.  The  poetry  is  fresh,  light,  and  pellucid, 
worthy  of  the  race  and  altogether  free  from  Parisian 
taint" 


' 


THE   RCANDTNAVIAN    LAKOUAaKS. 


103 


f  Carlylo's 
onic  tran- 
■a  bird  too 
to  all  in- 
ne  tires  of 
lers  at  the 
nd  looking 
lunger  the 
nore  natu- 
rned  love- 
y,  as  they 

traveling 
>f  Teufels- 
navia,  and 
look  upon 
ich  in  the 
and  peace- 
ing.  The 
hores,  and 
IB,  without 
fe.  *    *    * 

as  would 
monarch's 
ire  are  no 
the  press, 
soil.  The 
IS  well  as 
.  pellucid, 
L  Parisian 


"  Bjornst.terne  B.tornson,*  one  of  the  most  emi 
nent  of  living  Norwegian  authors,  is  something  more 
than  even  the  finest  pastoral  taleteller  of  tliis  generation. 
He  is  a  dramatist  of  extraordinary  power.  He  docs  not 
possess  the  power  of  imaginative  fancy  shown  by  Werge- 
landf  (in  such  pieces  as  Jan  van  Huysums  Blomster- 
stykke),  nor  Welhaven's;^  refinement  of  phrase,  nor  the 
wild  melodious  abandon  of  his  greatest  rival,  tlie  author 
of  Peer  Gi/ut ;\\  but,  to  my  thinking  at  least,  he  stands 
as  a  poet  in  a  far  higher  rank  than  any  of  these  writers. 

"  In  more  than  one  respect,  particularly  in  the  loose, 
disjointed  structure  of  the  piece,  ^  Siyurd  Slembe'  re- 
minds one  of  Goethe's  *  Goefz,'  but  it  deals  with  materials 
far  harder  to  assimilate,  and  is  on  the  whole  a  finer 
picture  of  romantic  manners.  Audhild  (a  prominent 
character  in  ^Sigurd  Slembe,')  is  a  creation  worthy  of 
Goethe  at  his  best ;  worthy,  in  my  opinion,  to  rank  with 
Claerchen,  Marguerite,  and  Mignon,  as  a  masterpiece  of 
delicate  characterization.    And  here  I  may  observe,  inci- 


*  BjOrnstjebne  B.18RN8ON  was  born  in  1832;  has  written  several  novels, 
dramas,  and  epic  poems.  "  Sigurd  Sletnbe'''  is  a  drama,  publislicd  in  1863,  of 
which  Robert  Buchanan  eays  ;  "  It  is,  besides  being  a  masterpiece  by  its 
author,  a  drama  of  which  any  living  European  author  might  be  justly  proud." 
Several  of  his  novels,  including  "Arne,"  "A  Happy  Eoy,"  "The  Fisher- 
maiden,"  have  been  translated  into  English. 

t  Henrik  Arnold  Wergeland  was  born  in  1808,  and  died  in  1845.  He  is 
the  Byron  of  the  North.  His  works  comprise  nine  ponderous  volumes.  He 
excelled  in  lyrics. 

X  John  Sebastian  Welhaven,  born  in  180T,  died  1873.  Remarkable  for 
the  elegance  and  chasteness  of  his  style.  No  poet  has  more  beautifully  and 
correctly  described  the  natural  scenery  of  Norway. 

li  The  author  of  "'Peer  GynV  is  Henrik  Ibsen,  born  in  1828.  Was  en- 
gaged by  Die  Bull  as  instructor  at  the  theatre  in  Bergen,  which  pot<ition  he 
occnpied  six  years.  He  has  written  several  dramatic  works,  chiefly  of  a 
polemic  and  exceedingly  satirical  nature.  Many  of  his  countrymen  prefer 
Ibsen  to  BjSmson.    His  last  work  is  "  Keieer  og  Oalikeer.'" 


Ml 


104 


THE   SCAKDINAVIAN   LANGUAGES. 


s^^m 


]QSL 


dentally,  that  Bjornson  excels  in  his  pictures  of  delicate 
feminine  types, —  a  proof,  if  proof  were  wanting,  that  he 
is  worthy  to  take  rank  with  the  highest  class  of  poetic 
creators." 


I  might  add  to  the  above  quotations  from  Max  Mi'il- 
ler,  the  brothers  Grimm  and  many  other  eminent  writers; 
but  in  the  first  place  this  article  is  long  enough,  and  in 
the  next  place  the  works  of  the  last  named  authors  are 
accessible  to  all  who  may  wish  to  investigate  this  sub- 
ject further.  My  object  has  been  to  show  that,  in  the 
opinion  of  those  who  have  studied  the  subject,  the  North 
has  a  history,  language  and  literature  deserving  and 
amply  rewarding  some  attention  from  American  stu- 
dents. Of  the  good  or  ill  performance  of  this  task  the 
reader,  whom  1  earnestly  request  carefully  to  consider 
the  contents  of  these  pages,  must  be  the  judge. 


;-^^ 


PVBLtSHED  BY  S.  C.  GRIGGS  dr*  CO.,  CHICAGO. 


of  delicate 
ig,  that  he 
s  of  poetic 


Max  Mill- 
nt  writers; 
gh,  and  in 
tiuthors  are 
e  this  sub- 
liat,  in  the 
,  the  North 
irving  and 
erican  stu- 
lis  task  the 
to  consider 


A  LITERATURE  OF  A  THOUSAND  YEARS: 

Now  opening  to  the  research  of  American  Scholars. 
RECENTLY  PUBLISHED: 


«rmt0i<ji|-Patti$I{  ^tammai;  I  |(«atl4r 


With  a  Vocabnlary,  designed  for  American  Students  of  the 
Norwegian-Danish  Language. 

BY  REV.  C.  I.  P.  PETERSON, 

Professor  of  Scandinavian  Literature,  and  Member  of  the  Chicago  Academy 


909  pageg. 


of  Sciences. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Price,   $1.95. 


I.    GRAMMAB. 


11 
13 
13 
IS 
17 
21 
32 
25 
36 
36 
37 
37 


Oathoorapht. 

EimOLOGT.         .... 

Articles,  -       - 

Nouns, 

Adjectives,     .       -       -       - 

Numerals, 

Pronouns,       .... 

Verbs, 

Adverbs.         .... 
PreposHlons,      .... 
Conjunctions, 
laterjections,     .       -       -       . 

Syntax, 38 

Idioms, 44 

Proverbs.      -       -       -       ■       -    52 

II.    READER. 

HISTORICAL  SKETCHES  AND  T^.LES. 

Ni^rwa^  a  Thousand  Years  Ago.  54 
Tfte  Kings  of  Norway. 

H.  Wergeland.  •  -  -  hi 
RoUo  of  Normandy.  S.  Petersm.  62 
The  Discovery  of  Iceland. 

P.  A.  Munch.  -  -  -  -  63 
The  Discovery  of  America  by  the 

Northmen.  D.  Schoyen.  -  -  66 
A  Legend  about  St.  Olaf. 

S.Welhaven.  ....  68 
The  Battle  at  Stanford  Bridge. 

S.  Petersen,  -  •  -  -  71 
The  Song  of  Sinclair.  E.  Stoim,  73 
The  Uni  on  of  N'w'y  and  Sweden,  76 
Tsle-Teilers.  J.  Moe,  -  -  -  78 
Old  Mother  Margrethe  at  the  Gate 

of  Heaven.  H.  V.  Andersen.  79 
Canute  the  Great.     A.  Oehlen- 

gchlceger,  -  -  -  -  82 
Navy  Song.  Joh.  EvcUd,  •  •  85 
Norwegian  Flag  Song. 

C.l^.  K-chwach,  -  -  -  86 
Patriotic  Song.    B.  Bjdmton,         87 


102 
104 

106 
109 
110 


BIOORAPHIOAL  SKETCHES. 

Commemoration  of  Luther. 

N.  F.  S.  OruAdMg,  -  -  89 
King  Christian  rv.  F.Hammerich,  91 
Thomas  Kingo.  M.  Hammerich,     93 

Niels  Juel, 95 

Ludvi»  Holberg.    C.  A.  Thortsen,    96 
Peter  Tordenskjold,    -       -       •    100 
Hans  Egede.     .... 
Bertel  Thorvaldst  ,    • 
Adam  Oehlen  schlseger. 

M.  Hammerich. 
Christopher  Hansteen,    - 
Michael  Sars, 

SKETCHES  FROM  NATURE. 

The  Waters  of  Norway. 

L.  K.  Daa.  -  -  -  -  111 
A  Trip  Across  Norway. 

The  Author,    -  -    114 

The  Midnight  Sun.  (Pr.  Bayard 

Taylors  "Northern  Travel,^'  117 
Herds  of  Reindeer  in  Ficmarken. 

iV.  F.  Stockfleth,  -  -  -  119 
Ascension  of  the   *' Horsemen 

Mountain."  A.  Vibe,  ■  -  128 
Reindeer-Hunting  on  the  'High 

Mountain."  P.  AsbjSmsen.  126 
A  Norwegian  Patriotic  Song. 

S.  O.Woif,  -  -  -  -  130 
The  Departure.  A.  Munch,  -  132 
A  Stranding  on  the  West'n  Coast 

of  Jutland.    S.  S.  Blicher.    -    138 


III.  VOCABULARY. 


137 


IV.  Remarks  on  the  History  of 
the  Norwegian-Danish 
Language,       -       -       -    193 

V.  Notes  on  the  Authors  from 
whom  Selections  have 
been  made,  -       -    197  to  303 


PUBLISHED  BY  S.  C.  GRIGGC  &•  CO.,  CHICAGO. 


"^WH-A-T     IS    S-A.IID     OF 

PETERSOIN^'S 


W 


In  my  judEctnent  the  author  has  done  himeelf  much  credit,  and  I  trust 
his  Grammar  will  be  the  means  of  inducing  many  Americans  to  study  the 
Norwegian  language,  literature  and  history.— Pr(j/'.  B.  B.  Anderson,  Univer- 
slty  of  Wiscomin. 

I  may  say  that  I  have  myself  read  through  the  Norwegian-Danish  Gram- 
mar of  Peterson,  and  when  I  affirm  that  I  find  myself  able  to  translate  the 
reading  exercises  with  great  readiness,  it  may  be  inferred  how  well  the  book 
is  adapted  to  forward  one  in  a  knowledge  of  this  interesting  but  neglected 
language.—^.  Winchell,  late  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Syracuse,  If.  Y. 

Just  what  I  want  myself,  and  I  belieyc  that  a  great  many  others  will  tell 
you  the  same.  The  plan  of  the  book  is  simple  and  judicious  ;  the  execution 
is  excellent.  The  selections  of  the  reader  I  should  judge  to  be  very  hapyy. 
The  author  is  much  indebted  to  his  publishers  for  the  handsome  dress  of  his 
work.— JVyj/".  William  W.  Folwell,  President  of  the  University  of  Minnesota. 

I  rejoice  to  see  the  door  opened  to  American  students  to  the  treasures  of 
Norwegian  letters,  and  in  so  attractive  a  manner  as  in  Mr.  Peterson's  work. 
No  more  useful  direction  for  philological  study  opens  before  English  scholars 
now  than  the  research  into  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  Norse  Northern  tongues. 
This  work  will  be  surely  a  valuable  help  in  this  direction.— 2?««.  Frank  Sewell. 
Iresident  of  Urbana  University,  Ohio. 

By  the  aid  of  this  text-book  one  may  find  his  way  into  the  literary  trea- 
sures of  Norway  and  Denmark,  which,  although  not  great  in  numbers,  nave  a 
great  literature.— CAicagfO  Journal, 

The  Scandinavian  languages  and  literature  are  rapidly  becoming  of  a  like 
importance  and  value,  to  Americans,  with  the  German.  *  •  *  The  manual 
here  oft'ered  to  the  public  is  an  exceedingly  convenient  <vnd  serviceable  one, 
comprising  grammar,  reader,  and  dictionary  within  the  compass  of  one  bandy 
volume.  To  one  who  has  some  knowledge  of  German  especially,  and  to  any 
one  in  fact,  it  is  a  comparatively  easy  matter,  with  the  aid  of  such  a  manual, 
to  get  a  substantial  foothold  in  this  field  of  linguistic  study.— TA^  Standard, 
Chtcdgo. 

This  little  work  fills  a  want  which  has  long  been  felt.  The  throngs  of 
incoming  Scandinavian  immigrants,  who  are  yearly  adding  to  the  swarms 
already  here,  will  soon  make  the  Norwegian-Danish  tongue  as  important  an 
element  in  business  and  life  as  the  German  is  at  the  present.  *  *  Irre- 
spective of  the  practical  usefulness  of  the  acc|uisition  of  the  Norwegian- 
Danish  tongue,  its  wealth  of  literature  cannot  fail  to  make  it  an  object  of  the 
deepest  interest  to  the  scholar  and  the  man  of  culiure.  It  cannot  be  doubted 
tha'  Mr.  Peterson  has  in  this  little  text-book  made  a  genuine  addition  of  not 
a  1:  tie  importance  to  the  literature  of  schools,  which  will  result  in  wide- 
ep'  ad  benefit.— C%ica,y(»  Times. 

Sent,  postage  paid,  on  receipt  of  $1.25  by 

8.  C.  GRIGGS  &  CO., 

FubllBbers,  CHIOAaO. 


4  GO. 


tdti\. 


and  I  trust 
0  study  the 
son,  Univer- 

inleh  Gram- 
ranslate  the 
ell  the  book 
It  neglected 
:w,  Ni  Y. 

ere  will  tell 
le  execation 
very  hapyy. 
dress  of  hie 
tnnesota. 

treasures  of 
son's  work, 
lish  scholars 
irn  tongues. 
Yank  Sewell. 


iterarr  trea- 
ibers,  nave  a 


ling  of  a  like 
The  manual 
iriceable  one, 
)f  one  handy 
\  and  to  any 
ch  a  manual. 
he  Standard, 


3  throngs  of 
the  swarms 
important  an 
*  *  Irre- 
I  Norwegian- 
object  of  the 
it  be  doubted 
[dition  of  not 
jult  in  wide- 


CmOAGO. 


